I made it to UCM and with the
help of Dad and Jamie, I got all my stuff into my new dorm. I filled out some paperwork for Jena Rhodes, the
CA for the first floor of South Ellis. I
saw the sister of one of the new THRIVE students who I dated during my middle
school years. Her name was Elizabeth. We broke up many years ago and moved on but
we still remained friends. We caught up
on news and I learned that she was now engaged. I told her congratulations and after she left, I proceeded to unpacking
my things. I put up my Buddha poster and
my Lego Architecture sets and my bottle cap collection along my windowsill and
set up my altar. I built my Sungyemun
Lego set which I put with my other Lego Architecture sets along my windowsill.
After I got unpacked, the THRIVE
students, first and second year, and the mentors, went to the TV Lounge and
introduced ourselves. Then we split into
groups each led by a mentor to go look around the campus so the second year
THRIVE students could help the new students get more acquainted with it. I got paired up with Nathan, Jack, Taylor,
and Autrey, Sheldon, and Paige, three of the new students.
I went to the Campus Kick-off
that night before me, Hillary, Phillip, Amanda, Dave, and Kayla went to see the
comedian Rob Gleeson perform in Hendrix Hall. After seeing the comedian, I got back to my room and then Tyler and I
went to a meeting in the TV Lounge where we were given our roommate agreement
forms. After the meeting, Tyler and I
got to our dorm and filled ours out.
The next day, all the THRIVE
students went to see the Convocation before we went to Brunch with the Deans. That night I went down to the Rec Center for
the first time in a while but realized I forgot to bring my earphones to watch
TV. Thankfully Tyler was gracious enough
to let me borrow his headphones until my earphones came in the mail.
The next day I went to my
Screenwriting class which took place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from
9:30-10:45. One of our assignments would
be to find three sources for a movie and pick one. I already had two ideas but was debating on a
third.
After class got out I deposited
my three paychecks in my bank account at UCM and withdrew twenty dollars. Then I went down to the Einstein Brother’s at
the library where I saw Cassie for the first time in months. We were both glad to see each other. I asked about her summer and she said it went
good. She told me about working at a
summer camp then asked me about my summer.
I told her about going to New Hampshire and working at Hen House. It was good to see her after three whole
months.
Unfortunately my Student ID
wasn’t working in the cafeteria so Esther, the check-in lady, had to write my
name and number down on a sheet of paper until I got a new ID. I called my mom that day and asked her that
she send me my earphones and she said they would come on Thursday. Still hoping to do whatever I could for
Jack’s mom, I took one of my meditation cards, the Medicine Buddha one, and set
it one my altar, in the hopes that this bodhisattva (Buddhist saint) would help
Jack’s mother as I honored him during my daily practice by bowing before my
shrine. But I knew I had to not expect
it to cure Jack’s mom and not base my faith off whether it does or not. In
Tibet, the Medicine Buddha is venerated in devotion when loved ones are
sick. Sometimes it works, and sometimes
it doesn’t. Either way it is a way to
help realize and awaken one’s Buddha nature.
The next day I went to my Public
Speaking class and after that, I went to the Union and got a new ID. I also printed off my syllabus for both of my
credit courses, some papers for my Screenwriting class and a paper for me to
read for my Public Speaking class called What
Every Yale Freshman Should Know. Then I went to the bookstore and got my Screenwriting textbook.
Afterwards my ID card still did
not work in the cafeteria so I went to Housing and found out I had not signed
up for a new meal plan so I signed up for the full meal plan like I did last
year. During lunch, I looked on-line at
Lonely Planet’s section on Nepal, to go there as a Buddhist pilgrim and I read
about a strange Hindu temple in which a woman multi-tasked by combing her hair
as she makes love to her husband. After
lunch I read Chapter One of the textbook for my Screenwriting class where I
learned that true screenwriters spend about five hours a week on their
screenplays, so I decided I could probably work that around my schedule. I went to my Transition Planning class, which,
this year, would not be taught by Mrs. Carter but a teacher named Mike
Brunkhorst, or Mr. B as he liked to be called.
The
next day when I got back from my Screenwriting class Alex Place, the brother of
Elizabeth, asked me if I wanted to go rock-climbing with him. I said sure and we went down to the Rec
Center and ran into Jack on the way and he agreed to join us. Unfortunately the rock-climbing wall was
closed so we went back to the dorm. After that however, I went to the library to try and work on Plato math
and, in addition to seeing Cassie, I saw and interesting thing on the wall of
the library called 19 Possible Discoverers of America before Columbus. There were several Norse explorers mentioned,
and Indian one, an Irishman, Danish and Portuguese, a Black African Muslim from
Mali, but what stuck out to me was a Chinese explorer named Hui Shun. Hui Shun was a Buddhist monk from China in
the fourth century and supposedly landed in Guatemala where he taught and
preached Buddhism to the indigenous people of the region. In fact, the name Guatemala was believed to
be named after Gautama Buddha, the Historical Buddha.
So Buddhism maybe had reached
the West before Columbus. I had always
speculated so after I read the book Buddha
or Bust: In Search of Enlightenment, Happiness, and the Man Who Found them All. The author, an American Buddhist journalist
named Perry Garfinkel, suggested in his chapter on Buddhism in America that
Buddhism had reached the New World before Columbus blended of course, with
traditional Native American beliefs, just as Christianity is among several
Indian cultures in North and South America, such as the Maya. Now more evidence was starting to pile up.
I was going to work on Plato
math but then I got a call from Jessica asking me to meet her by the UCM
bookstore at 12:45 to pick up my books. I got there and mentioned I had already picked up my Screenwriting
textbook and so I got the book and the packet for my Public Speaking
class. I went down to the library to
work on Plato math thinking about that temple I read about in Nepal and then it
came to me, the third source of an idea for a screenplay. A screenplay that takes on how we multi-task
so much in our society about a woman who makes love to her boyfriend whiles she
does other things such as papers, phone calls, and credit card bills.
Afterwards I worked on Plato
math and went down to the Rec Center. I
came back and read the paper for my Public Speaking class, then went upstairs
to check my mail and, sure enough, I had gotten those earphones from Mom.
Tyler went home the next day to
work at his job over the weekend at AMC Theater. That night I went to New China Buffet with
Hillary, Philip, Amanda, Philip’s friend Marty, Kayla, Daniel, Kimmie, Jack,
Corey, Emily, and Autrey, Tyler, and Paige, some the new students from THRIVE,
and a UCM student who was thinking of becoming a volunteer.
On Saturday, my mom came and we
went down and ate at Crazy Dog’s. Then
we went to Hasting’s and I sold some of my old books and DVD’s I didn’t want
and got $11.50 worth of store credit. I
also got a crossword puzzle and I got a thing where you scratch at the surface
and get three matches in a row, you get a prize, which they were giving out
with every purchase. I got three matches
so I got five dollars store credit the next time I sell anything at
Hasting’s. After that, Mom and I went
back to my room and she helped me hang a drape over my windows.
Unfortunately I realized when I
tried to do Plato math that day that my earphones weren’t working. After that I went back to my dorm and then
went to the cafeteria. I saw that Spongebob Squarepants was on so I tried
to sit near the TV. At the table next to
me was Mckinsey and across from her sure enough was Cassie. Cassie said, “You can sit here.”
I sat down with them and
talked. I found out Cassie was living in
the Foster/Knox apartment building. Time
flew by fast as we ate and as I sat with Cassie, I noticed something going on
inside me that I just couldn’t express. We finished dinner and Mckinsey said, “Well it was good to see you.”
Cassie said, “Well, I’ll see you
around, maybe at Einstein’s.”
“Yeah,” I said.
That night I found out my study
hall nights were Monday and Tuesday. I
also watched Pawn Stars on the TV that Tyler brought as he was home for the
weekend. I worked on Plato again the
next day and I worked on a few of my screenplays for a full hour. That night I did my homework for my
Transition Planning class and my Public Speaking class and I ran on the
treadmill, watching King of the Hill
on my phone, which was actually very frustrating.
The next day I went to the UCM
computer store and bought some new earphones, some really cool red, black,
green, and yellow earphones which came with a bag to carry them in and smaller
earpieces. They worked fine and I used
them as I did Plato math. I also worked
on a few of my screenplays for another hour that day. That night I went to
study hall and after that I went to the Rec. Center and ran on the treadmill
using my earphones to watch King of the Hill and they worked great.
When I got back from the Rec.
Center that night, Alex said, “We should hang out sometime.”
“Sure,” I said.
I asked Alex what kind of stuff
he likes and he said, “Japanese stuff, antiques, Nintendo, looking at Medusa
stuff.”
“Cool,” I said. “We should watch Pawn Stars some time. It has a lot about antiques.”
“Ok," said Alex.
The next day during my
screenwriting I class there was a student who needed a note taker so I
volunteered to be one like last year. Then I went down to Einstein’s in the library before I went there to
work on my screenplays for an hour and Plato math. I worked on Plato and my screenplays for an
hour the next day and went to study hall again. The next day I worked on Plato math and worked on some of my screenplays
for an hour and the next day I did my exercise for my screenwriting class.
Tyler left on Thursday morning
and when I went to Einstein’s that day, I found Cassie wasn’t there because she
was sick. So I sent her an e-mail saying
I hope she gets well soon and gets all the things she needs for her classes. Later that day I finished Plato math and did
my homework for Public Speaking.
No comments:
Post a Comment