Updates

There has been mention that I don't talk about enough of the good parts of my life on here, that is, the parts other than ochem. And while I can't talk about everything because of other parties involved, I will talk about something other than classes. (If you are bored and just want the highlights, skip to last paragraph.)

I've made a new friend in bio class named Whitney, and she's pretty cool, I'm having a lot of fun getting to know the first years this year. I guess I still have some underlying fear of making friends with people who are older than me, partly because most of my friends older than me were originally my brother's friends. This doesnt include Joan or Carlos (even though he originally was in the same house as my brother), but just older people in general. But, as I was saying, there are some really cool freshmen in the house this year (including Laura, the reason for this post, who is from Ithaca, thats so cool) and other people I see hanging around. It makes me think I should spend less time in my room. Maybe I'll start doing homework in the lounge again or something, although then I would have to deal with piano-guy again, cuz he's annoying.

On a side note: why is it that my hair only does the cool flippy things when no one is around to see how good it looks?

Another side note: Its weird being around people who are taller than me, I know my father and brother are taller than me, but somehow they don't count, because I've known them my whole life. I remember this being a big point with what I liked about Max, that he was tall and gave good hugs, two very important characteristics. (If only he didn't life in Germany..or France right now doing his military service as the case may be.)

I've been thinking recently about the many facets of privacy. As I sit here in my single, I know that part of me really likes being able to shut the door to the world and be alone. But I also have a strong need to tell people about my life, most commonly, I tell Sara from Bling because we've been best friends forever and I can tell her anything, and vice versa. But privacy: Is it a person's need to keep something all for themselves? or an attempt to keep others from knowing about you, either to not be associated with whatever you are being private about or to have the excitement of secrets, because everyone loves secrets. I feel as if I'm not getting beyond the superficial level of this...so at what times do I want to be private? Obviously, about things I'm ashamed of, ocassionally about my accomplishments, being private can be used to get certain reactions out of other people... But I guess all these keep coming back to something that is felt in a situation where you know that other people would not understand, would not appreciate it the same way you do, would not accept it as part of you. So you don't tell them, out of fear, out of desire to keep the feeling entirely to yourself.

So where does this get me? Fear is nothing that is wrong, everyone is afraid of different things, for example, eyeballs really freak me out, but I wouldn't think twice about jumping from an airplane (hopefully with a parachute). And desire to save a situation or a feeling or whatever from being trampled by the huge world sounds perfectly natural. So I guess in these sense, privacy is simply a method of self preservation and self fulfillment.

On a slightly more interesting, but harder question: why, biologically, are people private? perhaps because not showing certain undesireable characteristics makes that person/creature more likely to be viewed as acceptable to another and therefore continue its genes... But I don't really know if there is another, grander explanation. Humans are weird.

So, hmm, this post is really long and doesnt really say much except I have been enjoying getting to know a whole new group of people coming through mayhouse and through campus. First years seem to be more approachable outside of living and learning for some reason. Also, for the most part, as long as one's actions aren't harming another person (and even sometimes if they are) they are ok because things can be rationalized down to self preservation and self fulfillment, two very important components of human life as we know it. So I guess now that I've spent my morning watching Gilmore Girls and posting, I will get ready for class. Hope everyone has a great day!