Well, I wanted this to be my big "Interview with Fr. Leahy" column. I know it's been done before by The Heights, BC Magazine, et al. But my column was going to be different.
I had a well-crafted plan to schedule an interview, discuss all things Iowa, and then, casually excuse myself to use the bathroom, snoop around Botolph House while Fr. Leahy sips on a Pepsi (I would have brought a cooler of Pepsi as a diversion), and finally uncover super-secret Master Plan documents.
Needless to say, that didn't work out.
So my options were as follows: insert a flashy rhetoric-filled opinion on the recent UGBC elections and accompanying Heights coverage, wax poetic on the recent roadblock for the Master Plan on account of Mayor Menino's opposition, or relate another hackneyed tale of off-campus living (for which I had a list of all the synonyms for mice: vermin, rodents, Satan's critters...).
I could not decide, and all I could think about is how we are all in need of a vacation. Thankfully, the early March break is just a hop, skip, and a jump away.
Amid studying for midterms and compensating for habitual procrastination, I thought that I would compile some lessons learned from the spring semester thus far.
See you after spring break - I'm off to relax in the land of favorable incorporation laws - Delaware.
Lessons learned (in no particular order):
1. It is possible to use the metal bars on the Boston College bus for acrobatics.
2. Overloading generally is not a good idea.
3. College goes fast. Too fast.
4. The moment you buy a new BC ID after 10 days of mooching off friends for printing and food, your card emerges from the pile of clothes waiting to be folded.
5. Living on Foster Street is better than living in Greycliff Hall.
6. Pino's is better than Presto's.
7. Entenmann's Raspberry Danish. Enough said.
8. Telling your roommate he looks like Beaker from the Muppets is not the best compliment.
9. Telling your other roommate he closely resembles the Frieda Kahlo portrait hanging on the wall behind him is equally out of place.
10. Male neighbors who reveal their midriff during normal conversation should always be put in the suspicious box.
11. Also deserving a place in the suspicious box: utilities pricing methods, most acronyms employed at BC, iClickers, Web cams, scented candles, crepe paper, the noise that comes through your headphones when you leave the libraries listening to music, and skim milk.
12. Sometimes your boss can become a spiritual director. It helps if he is a Jesuit.
13. Sleep apnea is a growing epidemic.
14. The Theology and Ministry Library on Brighton resembles (1) the mission control building from Apollo 13 and (2) the California atmosphere evoked in That Thing You Do. Nevertheless, one's whims and imagination are shattered when you (1) try to imagine Cardinal Law wandering the stacks or (2) find yourself wondering why there are so many small, secluded rooms punctuating various sections of the library.
15. Who labels a friend "cavalier" or uses the word "tuneage"? Juno clearly lacks verisimilitude.
16. More often than not, self-awareness is sorely lacking by me.
17. Brighton's Mirror Cafe provides the perfect time-warp-like experience for a late lunch.
18. At the end of a bad week, paint your bedroom with your roommate. It is OK to choose a cosmic-jungle design, but resist envying your roommate's wall of scenes from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
19. All too often one's personality test can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
20. Friends are great, but family is something special. See you soon, Mom and Dad.
Happy spring break, one and all.
Matthew Hamilton is a Heights
staff columnist. He welcomes comments at hamiltonm@bcheights.com.
2008 Woodie Awards
