because it's good to be in the know.

Summer: is it time yet?
sarah coghlan '09 -- naked opinion editor

"I am itching for summer. I need to get out of here! St. Michael's College, I love you, but I need you to release me from your grasp."

I have always prided myself on being studious--scholarly, if you will. Never coming to class ill-prepared, and certainly never losing focus and marking my precious Fivestar notebook pages with mindless doodles. Now, however, I am lucky if I can raise my hand once during class and utter something intelligent. I have academically checked out for the semester. My notebooks are clothed in strange little doodles of flowers.

Now, I have always loved flowers, but never enough to obsessively produce them en-masse on five-lined paper. I am now spending more class time perfecting my daisies' petals than taking notes. Each school day feels reminscent of the last day of eighth grade, alas we are not eating popcorn and watching Chicken Run for the third time.

Bummer.

What has happened to me? Always needing to point blame at someone or something--I blame Spain. Yes, the country whose values lie in eating, drinking, and sleeping has seemed to taint me. Should I be worried? Can I lift myself out of this academic slump, or am I changed forever? Should I be worried about this?

The sad truth is that I am unconcerned. That is the beauty of the problem, and I only have Spain to thank.

My host mother actually reprimanded me for studying. Choosing to spend a weeknight hitting the books, I was ridiculed and shamed into roaming the streets of southern Spain rather than memorizing verb tenses. Now that is a model for education if I've ever seen one! At first it felt so unnatural. Going to a bar the night before an exam--this is something Sarah Coghlan usually would not condone. But hey, as the Spanish say, "no pasa nada," don't worry about it.

Now, that is a motto to live by.

I am itching for summer. I need to get out of here! St. Michael's College, I love you, but I need you to release me from your grasp. Even though my plans from the summer are far from "plans," I don't know how much longer I can awake and rally for the school day ahead. Luckily the end is near.