A Spare Moment in the Madness

There are exactly nine days until I sit in a stadium with 40 or 50,000 of my fellow degree candidates and their families and friends and listen to the standing Secretary of Defense hopefully say something interesting about American foreign policy. Until then, my life is preoccupied by the breakneck pace of this last week of instruction and finals.

I have the oral portion of my Chinese final on Friday morning and the written portion on–get this–Saturday morning. For the oral portion, we are to write a 200 word essay, which we are then to memorize and recite. Why couldn’t this portion of the final be worth 85% instead of the 15% it counts for? I am struggling with writing my draft.

Then tonight I have my first final in a media effects class–where while the class has been interesting–the midterm did not, and by extension the final, will not at all correlate well to the lectures in class or meager material found in the book. In a word: anxiety.

Next Monday is my mass media law final and I don’t expect too much deviation from the quarter-long game plan there. Way out in the back, and incidentally only a day before my Communication departmental graduation ceremony, is my European media systems final. (fragment)  Given that the lowest grade I’ve made in that class is a 3.8, I don’t expect any trouble with the final exam.

Family flies in next Thursday and I’m thinking about coming home in the next few weekends–or for job interviews–whichever comes first. In the meantime, I’ll bask in the splendor of a precious few, quiet, morning sun moments–though the stock ticker blares in the background.