The ***Official*** Weekend Singles Thread (Aug. 25-27)

August 25, 2006 | WFTR and Rightwingintelligentsia

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Back to School

Well, it's that time of year. We're finally throwing away Fourth of July leftovers in our refrigerators; the stores are starting to put out Christmas decorations; and school is starting. (Okay, the stores don't have Christmas decorations up yet, but complaining about how early holiday decorating starts is everyone's pet peeve.) For lack of a better seasonal topic, this week's singles' thread topic will be back-to-school. We want to talk about your school experiences in general and back-to-school experiences in particular.

We'd like people to share any memories that they have of going back to school. Please feel free to post anything that comes to mind when you think of this topic.

Here are some questions to kick us off.

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Does back-to-school this year have any special meaning to you? Are you taking any kind of classes in the fall semester or quarter? If so, what are you taking and why are you taking it? How do you think you'll do? How close are you finishing whatever schooling you're doing? Do you have children in school?

When you think of going back to school, do you think of experiences you had as a child, as a teenager, or as a college student? Were you one of those people who looked forward to new friends and new challenges or were you one of those people who hated to lose the carefree days of summer?

What did you wear to school? Were you a jeans and T-shirt kind of person or did you wear the trendiest fashions? When you started back to school in the fall, were cool, crisp days just ahead or was the weather going to continue to be hot for a few more months?

Whom did you hang out with? The jocks? The artsy crowd? The nerds?

Did you go to football games in the fall? basketball games in the winter? Did you go to your prom or formal dance? If you didn't go to these kinds of events, what did you do instead?

What was the most popular song in the year that you graduated?

What was your favorite subject and why? Who were your favorite teachers and why?

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If you are heading back to school and have any subjects that scare you, please let us know. Within Free Republic in general and within this group, there are some very intelligent, very educated people. If there's some subject that could be a problem for you, maybe we can help.

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[rightwingintelligentsia]

[bannie]

Are we all still single????

[rightwingintelligentsia]

LOL--I guess so! How are you this evening?

[bannie]

I'm happy.

How you doin'?

[rightwingintelligentsia]

OK, despite the fact that I just had to shell out for a new washing machine. Hadn't had to shop for one in a while, so I was clueless as to how much they cost.

Any plans for the weekend?

[WFTR]

For me, most of what happened prior to college is a dim memory. I think I was more the type who missed the carefree days of summer and not the type who looked forward to meeting new people and learning new things. That attitude is amusing considering that I ended up with three engineering degrees and spent about five to ten years longer in school than most people do.

When I think of back-to-school memories, I always think of starting a new quarter or semester in college. As an engineering student, I almost never knew the feeling of being completely free on a college campus. I can remember the first few days of classes every term. I'd go to the first class, come home, and do my homework. Afterwards, I felt as if I were still "caught up" with my work. I could maintain that condition for a day or two at most. Beyond that time, I always had some assignment weighing on my mind. I was always thinking about what I needed to do. One of the neatest feelings about the beginning of a term was looking around and thinking, "Here I am on a college campus, and there's nothing that I absolutely have to do right now." I didn't have money to burn finding things to do, but I could afford to take a walk or do some photography.

When I moved into the dorms at Virginia Tech in 1981 (when it was called Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University), I remember getting all of my boxes of junk into my room. I went downstairs with my folks. We might have even gone out to eat. I hugged them good-bye and returned to my room. I piddled around through the afternoon and early evening. I remember going to take a shower that night and thinking, "I really live here. I can't just drive home and take a shower when I get home. For the time being, this is my home."

Strangely enough, I don't completely remember moving into my first apartment at Penn State in 1986. I had sub-leased a few times as an undergraduate, but as a co-op student, I generally found it easier to live in the dorms. Moving to Penn State for grad school meant getting my first apartment with my name on the lease. I'm almost certain that my folks came to Pennsylvania to help me move stuff, but the drive to Penn State was ten hours. I don't remember where we stayed for the night. I'm certain that we weren't able to go there in one day, get the key, and move my stuff into the apartment. I mostly remember that by mid-August, autumn is starting to come to State College, Pennsylvania. That first week may not have been gorgeous, but many subsequent weeks were very nice.

I made my final run through school from 1996 through 1999 when I went to Tennessee Tech to get a second master's degree. I was leaving a very bad job that I hated. I was changing my major from metallurgy and materials to chemical engineering. I thought that I would be permanently changing fields within engineering. In many ways, this move was a tough back-to-school. I realized that at age 33, I was starting in a program where I had less prestige and was making less money than I had as new graduate starting at Penn State at age 23. For a guy to realize that he's in a lower position at 33 than he was at 23 is a tough pill to swallow. Knowing that I had given up my middle-class income to be a student again also hurt. I remember some dean gathering us into a room trying to give us a pep talk about getting things done. I remember thinking, "I don't need this stupid pep talk. I need you to let us go so that I can start doing these things."

Bill

[RosieCotton]

This week, anyhow...

[darkangel82]

Yep, still single.

[WFTR]

Are we all still single????

LOL I'm afraid that I'm still single. I'm buying new snakes within a month or so, and I'm getting a male and female. When they reach that age, at least they won't have to be single. I'm also still looking for partners for the ones that I have.

Bill

[rightwingintelligentsia]

Wow--you really have spent a lot of time in school! What type of engineering did you study?

[Gordongekko909]

This August, I'm starting my third and final year of law school. Huttah!

[darkangel82]

What kind of law are you going to practice?

[RosieCotton]

Considering I was homeschooled for a good part of my life, my back-to-school memories aren't of the same sort. No new clothes...no fears of what the teachers would be like this year, no thoughts as to popularity.

I remember getting my stack-o'-supplies, for sure, though! I soooo love new notebooks and pens and pencils and all that. I still tend to hoard such things. And usually I'd get new or new-to-me textbooks a few weeks before we really dived in. Most years Mom would have a new idea for organizing said textbooks and supplies, so we'd get all that set up, too.

And there were always lots of activities for getting together with other homeschoolers during the year, so there was that. And giving up most time with my few friends who went to public school - I was always amazed at how little free time they really had during the year, what with homework and sports and long days. In comparison, we were pretty free to come and go, so long as we scrambled to get our work done early.

I'm such a spoiled brat...

[Gordongekko909]

Mineral law, most likely. Oil and gas stuff. I've got an interview with Halliburton's in-state counsel. ^_^

[darkangel82]

Lol, are you the next GWB?

[WFTR]

My first degree was in Materials Engineering.

My second degree was in Metals Science and Engineering. At Penn State, the metallurgy/materials department was part of the College of Earth and Minerals Sciences and not part of the College of Engineering. My office was in Steidle Building. I remember occasionally wandering around the museum when I needed a study break. They had some nice displays there. Did you ever come to Steidle to look at the shrunken heads? They had real shrunken heads in a display case.

I went back for the third degree because I was in a lousy job and wasn't having any luck finding something better. I decided that I would change fields from materials and corrosion to chemical engineering, so the third degree was in Chemical Engineering.

After getting that degree, I ended up back in the corrosion and materials field. The background in chemical engineering makes me a better engineer overall, but I don't officially get much chance to use that degree.

Bill

[Gordongekko909]

Heh. I don't know if I could stomach a political career.

[rightwingintelligentsia]

So when you finish, do we get to tell lawyer jokes about you?

[pcottraux]

School. *Shudder*

Okay, the stores don't have Christmas decorations up yet, but complaining about how early holiday decorating starts is everyone's pet peeve.

We're already starting to get 'em in!