Well now I really am "Just Jo."

A newly-single mind is certainly an unsteady one, but I can feel myself getting more and more focused on the task at hand: happiness. Was my breakup the ideal situation? No, absolutely not. Something this distracting just before finals is never ideal, but I'm beginning to put it in perspective. Maybe it's for the best. I love him, but I wasn't happy and that was making him unhappy. Maybe it's not the right time for us. Maybe we'll still be friends. Maybe we'll never speak again (I hope that's not the case). He has been a large part of my experience in college thus far and we had our high points, but I think I need to have my time to shine and experience college life on my own, and maybe we can try again later. Being alone for the summer will be rough, but I'll need to make sure I keep myself busy and have fun with friends. And stay in shape and play lots of soccer. One thing is for certain: we're both going to be okay.

Some call it "Slut Week." I call it Paradise.

It occurs every year-- a familiar and cherished time for New Englanders and New Yorkers. It is the first week of warm weather, this year occurring in April, when young women are finally able to break out of the constriction of their skin-tight jeans and yoga pants and show off their winter-white, fake-tanned, or chocolate-brown legs, much to the delight of the young men sporting cargo shorts and mandals.

It has been a long, cold six months, but now it is time to crawl under tiny dorm room beds, blow the dust off storage bins, and pull out those short shorts, because it's freedom time. Black, white, or orange, thick or thin, the feeling is mutual. It's so good to be able to kick off snow boots in exchange for flip flops. Toenails are painted, legs are shaved for the first time in months, and hair is tossed up in ponytails. Nighttime outdoor practices become bearable in shorts and tee-shirts instead of three layers of sweats. Colorful bra straps peek out from under tank tops, and the chirping of birds accompanies alarms for 9 a.m. classes.

No one is inside. Productivity is at an all-time low, with senioritis at its peak, even for the underclassmen. The population of the campus seems to triple as everyone emerges from the winter slump. It is a scene from a college brochure. The tulips are blooming around sunbathing students, who laugh at peers' attempts to throw a frisbee.

Students from far away who aren't used to the snowy winters are so relieved they could cry. They feel that no one warned them it would take this long for the sun to come back. It's as if they've served an extra long prison sentence even though they were innocent, but now they've been let out into a world that satisfies a generic definition of heaven. They can't fly, but they feel like they might sprout wings any second. Some try to sing like the angels, starling the squirrels and feral cats and earning chuckles from passers by.

Summer is in sight. Hormones are raging, vacations are in the planning process, and everything is more beautiful than it was in the fall. There is only a month before finals week, but no one is worried about the cramming they'll have to endure when it arrives-- everyone is just trying to enjoy the warm weather while it lasts. Because who knows? Next week could be freezing again; Northeast weather at its finest.

It's been awhile!

So let me play ketchup.

Exciting things have been happening lately! At the end of last week, on March 7th, 8th, and 9th, Hofstra hosted a sustainability conference. We had people from all over Long Island and elsewhere, and they were all here to celebrate different aspects of sustainability. On Wednesday night, to kick off the conference, there was a Celebration of Suburban Diversity banquet. I dressed up and looked snazzy, and saw all the important sustainability people that Long Island has to offer. There were even oriental dragons with people in them, like the ones that the Huns hid in in Mulan.

At the conference there were a few internship opportunities that I'd love to take advantage of, including one at Sustainable Long Island. That would be pretty awesome.

Here are some pictures of the banquet!

Wait, did I just apply to be a volunteer in Haiti?

Oh. Yes, I did.

I took a step. I don't know yet if it's actually a leap, because they might not even select me as a relief volunteer. I applied to an organization called Sustainable Haiti, telling them that I could start in June. Their website seemed pretty legitimate, so I just decided to go for it. I have no idea how I'm going to afford the plane tickets, or live for a month without technology, but hopefully I'll be fine.

The application asked what cross-cultural experience I had, and I realized the answer was none, and that made me want to apply even more. I need to get out of the burbs, and the perfect little city of college where everything is planned. Sounds like typical teenage rebellion, but it's for a good cause. I really do want to help the relief efforts. I need to do more research on Haiti, but it sounds to me like they need as much help as they can get.

So, if anyone who reads this little slice of my mind has any advice for me, it would be awesome if you'd share it. I really have no idea what I'm doing, and I'll have less of an idea if I actually get into this program. Feel free to tell me how great of a person I am for trying this, or you could try to talk me out of it, I'm interested in both sides of the spectrum.

That's all for now. Here's the website I got the application from: http://www.sustainablehaiti.org/Default.aspx

So I changed the name of my blog.

I realized it was a little lengthy.

Now it's just as lengthy, but seems more urgent. Maybe I just got bored and wanted a change. It used to be called "Art, Sustainability, and Other Important Things," but I think that gave away too much of what I talk about. Now maybe it'll be super endearing and everyone in the world will want to read it because they'll want to find out what the heck is so important!

Anyway, I wanted to share some exciting news with whoever reads this thing: I won something! It probably doesn't mean a lot but I was pretty excited about it. On Friday, instead of doing a Geology lab, we took this problem-solving assessment test. It wasn't like the SATs where you're doing math and science and all that, it was more like actual real-world problems, like you're at an internship and your boss tells you to make a chart from this specific data, how do you do it? Application-type stuff like that. I thought some of the questions were pretty difficult, but I finished in the allotted amount of time. My professor had "bribed" us with pizza to take the test (even though everyone was thrilled about being able to get out of the three-hour class two hours early) and told us that whoever got the highest scores would win a prize. Well, I got a perfect score of 500. So I won! It made me feel great, and also I got a Geology T-shirt and a pretty rock as a prize! Not the most important thing in the world, but definitely made me feel like a champ.

Okay so now that I've gotten that great victory off my chest, I can talk about the actual cool things that are going on. Right now there are three people here from China. They are working with my professor/boss to learn about sustainability and hopefully bring some of what they learn back to Hainan, where they live. They're all very nice, and they seem so eager to learn, which is awesome. I wish we had more Americans like that. Anyway, I'll keep you (whoever you are) updated on more awesome things!

A reflection on the first two days of Spring Semester

Because I can already tell how the rest of the week is gonna go.

Basically I'm a crazy person for having such a busy schedule, but I really don't have too much of a choice. The classes I'm taking are either necessary for my major and minors, or they are necessary for the honors college. Besides that, I'm going to the gym almost every morning, and working almost every day, as well as playing soccer two or three nights a week once the season starts, and also doing a leadership program some Wednesday nights. Plus homework and social things. Hopefully I don't explode.

The thing is, I know I did this to myself. I technically don't have to play soccer or work so much but I want to. I have always needed to keep myself busy so I don't procrastinate on homework or anything else. And I love the things I'm doing! Pretty soon for work I'm going to be going out and collecting soil samples from a town on Long Island, in order to do lead testing on them. That's the kind of field-work I want to be doing, and I'm excited about it. And I can't wait for soccer, I love playing and everyone on the team is great. I'm even excited about most of my classes, despite the fact that I'm scared shitless of my economics professor.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is this: I wish I had the time and brain capacity to focus on just one thing at a time, and be really devoted to it.  For example: I want to do a really fantastic job on my sustainability project this semester, because I love the topic and I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to do. It's a long-term thing, though. I won't be able to cram it into a week, and I don't want to. The thing is, the little free time I have will be filled with reading for my honors classes or economics or geology. I'm afraid I'll have to keep pushing the project back until it's way too late to do a good job. It seems like one tiny semester is not enough for all the things I want to accomplish.

So I guess that's my dilemma for the day.

Here is a penguin.

I painted this for my boyfriend, and I figured since it had to do with both art and sustainability (you know, since the ice caps are melting), I'd post it here.  Enjoy!