No-Nathan November
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
William Shakespeare wrote fondly of autumn, as did many other very accomplished and eloquent poets. None, however, described autumn with such remorse as I will in the following haiku:
Sorry, didn’t blog
Now I have to catch you up
Blog blog blog blog blog
Per usual, my commitment to over-commitment means I’ve used my few spare semester moments to do things like occasionally sleep or call home. We’ve completed the month of November, so it’s definitely time to play catch up on my next-to-last semester at this fine institution. Among the many, many things worth writing on this semester:
Melotour – That bizarre but exciting time each fall when the Melodores pack up and head to increasingly exotic locations to perform with other college groups, visit high schools and wave the Vanderbilt flag while having ourselves an excellent time. This year, Melotour took the Melodores out to sunny L.A., California, which was not only eventful but gorgeous enough to deserve two or three standalone posts (and will receive but one).
Vandy Red Cross – American Red Cross at Vanderbilt, a service organization in which I serve as the Vice President for Service, has been up to some selfless shenanigans this semester. From blood drives to film-making, from Project CURE to the Nashville Rescue Mission, I have much to tell about my favorite service org.
Guest Speakers – As Victoria promised in one of her earlier blogs, we have attended a number of really cool speaking engagements on campus this semester. A list may pique your interest, but I think the best teaser is this – one speaker drew 24 library faculty members and one Vanderbilt undergraduate student (me). Who was this mysterious visitor? Only another blog post can tell!
FTX – ROTC has been as hectic as ever this semester; the program’s seniors design and facilitate all training for the Battalion, and I was privileged enough to receive the position of Battalion Commander for this semester, which meant a lot of work. Apparently the United States Congress didn’t realize I had enough work, though, because they very rudely shut down this fall, putting all funding to ROTC on hold and forcing my fellow ROTC seniors and I to jump through flaming hoops, scrambling to maintain training value for our fall Field Training Exercise with no money or transportation. More on the saga of the Fun-But-Un-Fun-ded FTX to follow.
This whole blog has been a bit of a teaser, but I hope it serves as a good appetizer for the main courses to come!