Sprinting through spring term

For some odd reason, I am here at BYU taking classes straight through the summer, again. (Okay, it’s not an odd reason: changing my major two years into college plus thoroughly enjoying four months in Jerusalem plus an internship in Washington, D.C. this fall put me behind on the grad plan unless I make up for lost time with spring/summer terms. Plus, BYU gives me an extra semester free of tuition. I’m not stupid. I’ll take free money. )

Okay, let's regroup.

Originally, this post was a long complaint about how busy I am now. I changed my mind. Suffice it to say, I’m busy. I had to get special permission to take as many credits as I am, I’m working part time, I will probably be volunteering with a small non-profit this summer, and I, like every human being, have to eat, sleep, and groom once in awhile. There are drawbacks and advantages to having very little free time. For example, I achieve a lot more than I would have if I had more free time. I am constantly under pressure, and I hit the mark expected of me. Improving feels good. On the other hand, I don’t have time to enjoy things like making a nice dinner, reading (excessively) for fun, or watching the sixth Bulls/Celtics game. With that introduction, here are brief observations about my classes so far.

(These are the “real” names.)

BUSM 341 Marketing Management: I rescind all of the quasi-critical thoughts I had about marketing. I think I will really enjoy this class. Even if marketers are really out to deceive me into buying something I don’t need, my teacher makes it sound like it actually is a noble objective.

My professor is young, charismatic, and energetic. He is an engaging lecturer and very competent in his field. I usually really like young professors because they still remember what it feels like to be a student. For example, this professor will not hold us past the end of class, even to finish a point. I also like that young professors generally set higher expectations for their students. Prof. Huff requires written notes on the assigned reading every class period and assigns five-hour problem sets over weekends. (He said the problem sets would “only” take us five hours. Since he did undergraduate work in engineering, I believe that five hours seems very reasonable to him.)

MANEC 300 Economics of Market Systems: Since I greatly enjoyed my Econ 110 class, I’m excited to be viewing the world through an economic lens again. It’s exciting when I realize why my apartment always runs out of toilet paper (self-interest completely devastates public goods) or why they anonymously evaluate employees at work (to prevent shirking). My professor in this class is the daughter of another MANEC professor in the business school. She is quite young as well and has three young kids. This class requires daily homework that we must complete in our groups outside of class. The professor talks very loudly (maybe a byproduct of the three young kids) and sometimes I’m afraid she’ll chasten us for our stupidity, but she’s growing on me. I like when she talks about her kids. Today, she brought in a post-it note that was left on her bedroom door. It said, “go shoping momy. Plez by sereal.”

BUSM 390 Ethics for Management: My ethics teacher is the oldest professor I have (and he’s probably mid-40s) and super skinny. He’s a nice guy and he mediates potentially heated discussions very well. This class sometimes reminds me of Sunday school because a majority of the time is filled with anecdotes from the class. Even so, I think ethics is a worthwhile topic for discussion and I enjoy learning more about business ethics. One thing that bugs me a little… my professor often ends a sentence with “what have you” instead of “etc.” or “and so forth.” It’s a small little quirk that ultimately doesn’t matter as long as I don’t adopt the habit as well.

BUSM 320 Career Preparation: Once a week lecture series with resume reviews and interviewing skills. We have to do a few papers and a mock interview.

BUSM 321 Mentor Program: We sign up for a mentor outside of BYU and pick his/her brain about his/her career and the professional world. We write three papers.

All of my classes (except 320,321) have big group cases and big group papers.

So, you might be asking yourself, if Lynne has so much school work to do, why is she blogging her time away?

1. Because I’m at work. And while I’m fully available to help the one person here, he seems to be doing alright on his own.
2. Because I’ve been going to school full-time since fall 2007. No breaks aside from the three or four days between semesters. School is making me a little edgy and I need a release.
3. Blogging isn’t a waste of time because I'm not being passive. Ask my dad. I convinced him to start one too. (It’s a vicious cycle.)

P.S. You can access my dad’s blog here.

Confessions of a former Facebook addict

Now that I have successfully entered the world of blogging, I feel a responsibility to comment about another method of cyber-socializing (cyber-socialism…?): Facebook.

Facebook has sucked many hours of my life away into oblivion. Thus, I am slightly biased. However, as a former addict, I do feel qualified to expose the soul-sucking power of Facebook. I, like so many others, was hypnotized by the ubiquitous status updates and application possibilities Facebook offers. “TIFFANY IS loving her hair extensions!” “PETE IS no longer in a relationship.” (Who’s Pete?)

My criticisms of Facebook are many (FB replaces face-to-face interaction, FB is a social crutch, FB needlessly clutters lives, FB encourages dwelling on the past rather than the present, etc.) , but I would like to focus on one. I weaned myself off FB a few months ago because I always felt worse when I logged off than when I logged on. Here’s why.

FB romanticizes the lives of everyone…but you. You, like me, have probably “Facebook stalked” someone. You click on a comment, status, or photo and end up looking at 60 pictures of Susan’s family reunion or John and Joannie’s new 4-wheeler. Somehow, on that blue and white page, everyone’s lives look ideal. I am not even interested in owning a 4-wheeler, but for some reason, after looking at John and Joannie’s pictures on Facebook, I want one. When I am single, I gravitate toward wedding albums and “I’m engaged!!!!” albums to glean some of the enthusiasm contained in those exclamation marks.

Maybe my skewed view of everyone else’s adventures comes from the mindset with which I peruse Facebook. My fingers mindlessly log on to Facebook whenever I am between real tasks. I start looking at everyone else’s lives precisely when I am bored with mine. Instead of getting up and actively contributing to something of worth, I passively observe the dynamic lives of others. Of course my life looks dull in comparison. At the moment I am on Facebook, it certainly is. I sit in a computer lab looking at the escapades of everyone who is too busy living their lives to sit around on Facebook feeling sorry for themselves.

Of course, Facebook is not responsible for all of my envious thoughts. I don’t think it is created maliciously. I see the benefits. Distant family members get frequent updates, classmates stay in contact after graduation, and strangers find a common friend and network. But, for me, a brief log in once a month is about how much Facebook I can handle. If I get on more frequently, my eyes glaze over and I spiral into a bout of self-pity. No. Thank. You.

Don’t get me wrong, if you’re a Facebook-ite, I respect that. I once defended Facebook to a person like me.  But it is something that doesn’t fill my needs anymore. Instead of being sucked into a cyberworld where everyone and everything looks like perfection itself, I open my eyes to the world around me. I find much more meaning and happiness in my conversations with my roommates, my walks around the block, and my quippy and cathartic blog postings.

Are you addicted to Facebook? If you are, the first step is to admit you have a problem.

The second step is to start a blog. 

P.S. For a very amusing article about Facebook click here. 

Thus, my blog was born

I imagine that most of my posts will be written at work. (I work on campus as a computer assistant.) It can be somewhat (read: deadly, mindnumbingly) slow sometimes. You can only check the paper supply so many times.

Since it's the last day of finals, I have no homework. All of the useful things I could be doing involve not sitting behind a computer and refilling the stapler. No one seems to need my oh-so-helpful computer assistance and I already read the top stories at google.news, so I could either start writing or play with my hair to keep myself busy.

Thus, my blog was born.

Right now, there are four people in my lab. Just enough to keep me from listening to music or making calls to pass the time.

But, if they all leave, I'm plugging in my earbuds and watching Monk on hulu.

My grand experiment

Obviously, I have succumbed.

Yesterday, I was normal. Today, I blog. (According to dictionary.com, "blog" can be used as a verb. In case you were wondering.)

Here I will post my thoughts, dreams, hopes, disappointments, religious views, and funnies. Mostly, I post them in order to distill and clarify my thinking. Obviously, since I'm not writing this paragraph in a journal, you are welcome to listen in.

Let me start by explaining my url.

First, even though I do get a little bit giddy when a conversation turns to punctuation, I wasn't set on having "hyphen Lynne" in my address. I have nothing against hyphens. (Except, they are a little reminiscent of dashes and dashes are (mostly) a punctuation crutch for the punctuation weak. But, I digress.) "Waitandhope.blogspot" is simply more iconic than "waitandhope-lynne.blogspot." It sounds like I'm giving myself an order. I take that back. For that to be true--it would have to be a dash.

Anyway, the quote comes from The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas. At the very end of the book, a few of the main characters prepare to sail away from everything and everyone familiar. The count sends them a note with this quote at the end:

"Live, then, and be happy . . . and never forget that until the day when God shall deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is summed up in these two words, --'Wait and hope.'"

What would be a rather sad separation is instead full of hope. My life right now is full of unexplored horizons. My plans (and oh, I plan) change day to day. Opportunities, challenges, apartments, roommates, classes, and adventures come and go. Permanence is in no way part of my life.

In order to keep myself from panicking about every road not taken or test not passed (just kidding), I remember my Monte Cristo mantra. The count didn't advise them to panic and worry about the unknown seas ahead, he told them to breathe and hope for the best.

As for me, I don't know the future, but I know it is bright.