The problem with college is that homework, classes, labs, and tutorial sessions can only waste so much of my time.
Here are some activities, organizations, and clubs that I may be wasting the rest of it with:
- JELLY (Jugglers Enriching Lives Like Yours): If I could become ultra-proficient with my diabolo, I would feel very accomplished. There happens to be a very good diaboloist in JELLY, so I should have someone to learn from (at least to a point) and a community with which to practice.
- ACM/ICPC (Association for Computing Machinery and their International Collegiate Programming Competition): The ACM is basically the computer science club, so I’ll be hanging with them for sure. I’m already in communication with the ICPC coach and trying to start a team. UChicago has had a team go to the world finals the last two years.
- The Programming Club: This is a newer club not associated with the international ACM organization. There’s also a Game Dev Club which sounds interesting but I don’t really know anything about.
- GCI & SJSF (Green Campus Initiative and Students for a Just and Sustainable Future): These are two environmentalist groups with which I plan to involve myself. I’m going to help with a phone bank for SJSF on Sunday, in fact. Both organizations are also attending a 10/10/10 Coal Day of Action event organized by the Chicago Clean Power Coalition.
- SSA (Secular Student Alliance): Supporting, defending, and discussing faithlessness on campus and elsewhere.
- NSP or CYP (Neighborhood Schools Program or Chicago Youth Program): Honestly, I doubt I’ll have time for this. If I do, however, these are both organizations providing opportunities for tutoring and mentoring children in Hyde Park, Woodlawn, Kenwood, and surrounding neighborhoods.
- Aikido: I definitely want to learn aikido, it looks awesome. Again, I doubt I’ll have time for this. If not, I’ll probably take the Conflict Theory and Aikido Lab course from the PhysEd department Winter quarter.
- My new position as Secretary of Hitchcock House: House government elections were held last night. The venerable Ben Brubaker left his position as Secretary to become the President. Later, I was elected as Secretary—the position charged with recording events during house meetings EXACTLY as they occur, in painstaking detail, or risking death by hanging—with this speech: “I get uncomfortable talking about myself, so I’m going to talk about someone we all know: Vladimir Putin. Fun fact: he was the captain of his high school curling team. (Dramatic pause.) I made that up. I plan to make up many more interesting tidbits for your enjoyment. Thank you.” Well, something like that, I’m not sure about the details.
- A job: I’ve accepted a position on a programming team under the Networking Services and Information Technology umbrella.
- The Gaming Guild: I’ll probably play a few games. Board games, card games, video games, roleplaying games—I will have more people to play these with than I ever could have asked for in Yakima.
Well, that’s all for now. Hopefully I’ll actually have enough time for most of this. Let me know if you think any of these are a waste of time so I can act slightly offended and disregard your advice!
