Where did the time go?

It's been a crazy semester and now it's crunch time.

By next week, we all have final touches to add to our blogs and Web sites, especially towards our final project. I'm still in the process of gathering content and interviews. Time has passed so quickly and many things have occurred within the past five months, both good and bad. But that's reserved for another blog entry.

I'm also stressed out because I have summer school, which starts on May 21, the day after my birthday. Great planning, eh?

I'll be taking some interesting courses like:

• AVT 382 Digital Arts and Animation (4)
  
• AVT 414 Graphic Design IV (4)
• ARTH 320 Arts of the Islamic World (3)
• ENGL 332 Introduction to Film Criticism (3)

I hope to learn a variety of software programs better as well as expand my mind about culture. That's 14 credits total and the two sessions will overlap. I'll be having fun while balancing all that.

And because I'm obsessive-compulsive (haha), I've finalized my schedule for fall.

• AVT 498 Senior Design Project (yikes!) (4)
• AVT 462 Sculpture III (4)
• AVT 252 Photography I (4)
• AVT 309 Art as Social Action (3)
• AVT 399 The Sustainability Project (1)
• COMM 454 Free Speech and Ethics (I'll be done with my minor!) (3)
• AVT 394 AVT Honors Seminar (1)

That leaves me with only these classes for spring 2008:

• AVT 472 Critical Theory (3)
• AVT 354 Digital Photography (4)
  
• AVT 394 AVT Honors Seminar (1)
  

I'll definitely add more to that, but time is flying by! Everyone has told me to relax for my final semester since no one else completes a (120-credit) BFA with an 18-credit minor, so we'll see how it goes.

Nationwide Hokie pride.

I know a lot of people that currently go to Virginia Tech or have recently graduated from there. I also know many high school students planning to attend as well. A large community here in northern Va. has been affected greatly by this tragedy. Even before this event occurred, students always had Hokie pride and expressed love for their school. Now Columbine seems too close to home.

It made me realize how quickly things can change and how Internet use can be crucial at these times. The best way to contact my two cousins (who are brothers) and friends at school was through Facebook. Cell phones tend to be busy and it may not be a proper time to call. Facebook allows quick updates that gets the news out there to everyone. There are groups and notes written in support and I'm glad those I know turned out OK.

I've been watching the news constantly and sometimes I feel overwhelmed and stop watching. I cried again. But then, I started to check online updates at washingtonpost.com, nytimes.com and vt.edu.

There are also Mason Web sites for more info: Outreach and President Merten's letter.

Everyone should watch the Convocation video clip, especially Nikki Giovanni's address. Here's the transcript:

"We are Virginia Tech.

We are sad today, and we will be sad for quite a while. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning.

We are Virginia Tech.

We are strong enough to stand tall tearlessly, we are brave enough to bend to cry, and we are sad enough to know that we must laugh again.

We are Virginia Tech.

We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did nothing to deserve it, but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, neither do the invisible children walking the night away to avoid being captured by the rogue army, neither does the baby elephant watching his community being devastated for ivory, neither does the Mexican child looking for fresh water, neither does the Appalachian infant killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy.

We are Virginia Tech.

The Hokie Nation embraces our own and reaches out with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong, and brave, and innocent, and unafraid. We are better than we think and not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imaginations and the possibilities. We will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears and through all our sadness.

We are the Hokies.

We will prevail.

We will prevail.

We will prevail.

We are Virginia Tech."