I apologize for my absence from the admissions blogosphere (my own blog has been suffering as well) but I've had so much stuff to do that I haven't had much spare time for the Internet.
First it was two brutal weeks of finals during which I wrote approximately sixty pages of various papers. By the end of finals period I started to feel like I had used up my entire vocabulary. If I have to see the words "approach" or "discourse" or "narrative" or "nationalism" again, I will probably poke my own eyes out. But I made it through and now I have a whole summer to recharge before I come back to work on my honors thesis in the History Department (which is, incidentally, about American approaches to Arab nationalism).
After I finished my schoolwork I had to begin the frenzied moving out process. I doubt that Oberlin is different from other colleges in this respect, but the end of the semester is exceedingly chaotic. All the students are kicked out of their dorms at 9:00 AM on the Monday after finals. If you sat in the middle of campus on that morning you could spend six hours or so watching hundreds of college students look like some kind of very privileged refugee as they struggle to carry boxes and duffle bags across campus and load up their parents' cars with unpacked belongings. The whole thing feels like a disaster, but always ends up working out somehow.
Once that was done with, it was time to relax. Commencement week, the week after classes end but before graduation, is one of the best times to be at Oberlin. Imagine college without any classes. I only stayed for a few days because I needed to get home to prepare for my trip abroad this summer, but it was an excellent couple of days that mostly consisted of sitting in the grass, drinking some nice beers, and having quality time with my dear friends who are graduating and won't be around next year.
Then it was a nine-hour drive straight east on I-80 back to my home in New Jersey, where I will spend two weeks sleeping and unpacking and visiting my friends before I head off to the Middle East for the summer. But at least now, with finals and packing and Oberlin over with for the summer, I will have time to spend blogging. So stay tuned.
