New Beginnings

So I'm sitting in the airport in Roanoke, getting ready to head to Syracuse, and I can't hlep but think that this is a new beginning. Technically, the "new start" won't really start until August, but the wheels are already in motion- and there are too many emotions going on to think and process effectively- sadness, happiness, anticipation, sorrow, melancholy, joy, questioning, reluctance, rinse, wash, and repeat.

The one thing you hear over and over is how change can be scary- is it really scary? or is it just we let our emotions and cognitions get the better of ourselves?

I am very excited about the prospects offered by Syracuse, but I still feel immense sadness about the people I'll leave behind and the changes that have occurred in my life since coming to Blacksburg- time will only tell.

Awareness

So the VT police sent out another message (I would say the 3rd or 4th this semester) about another incident involving students. Was this a orblem before? or is this something new?

I would like to think of it more as "awareness." It is not that Blacksburg is "unsafe," if you look at sheer statistics on "violent" crime, but there are those concerns that always happens with a college town. We aren't talking Grand Theft Auto or Murder or Armed Robbery- we are talking about a quick assault and a dash into the dark. Of course, those are the incidents that don't make it into national statistics, so yes, Blacksburg will continue to appear "safe."

I'm not a person to be paranoid, but at the same time, I also don't assume that every place I go is "safe." You have to have a certain degree of comfort and familiarity with a place. I still feel Blacksburg is in my "safety" zone, but at the same time, Washington Heights at 2 am is also still in my safe zone. It's relative.

And of course, it is a college town- the rate of crime is going to underreported and the numbers fudged to represent the quaint college town that mom and dad would not have a problem dropping off their little darling for the first far away from home.

Work, ADD, and other random things I will write about while under the influence of sugar and caffeine!

I don't think I spelled caffeine right...hmm I guess i did...it didn't show up with a red squiggly line.

OK- so I had a rather unproductive day- I did some reorganization of the paper and then basically let everything distract me to no end (and for once, Facebook was NOT the destraction). I have an overwhelming urge to go somewhere...now. I hear South Africa is nice or even Ukraine (is there a the in front of that? is it like THE Netherlands???? These are questions of grave importance I guess I should be trying to answer, being in International Affairs and all...)

Oh and I found a funny word from urban dictionary- collateral misinformation- when someone gets the wrong information from wikipedia because someone has changed it to win an argument. Oh urban dictionary how I love thee.

Ok...enough random thoughts and all that- I have a bus to catch! WEEE SLEEEEEEEEEEEP!