Twenty-Two

My birthday marked the beginning of the end for my life here at Penn State. It was a pretty uneventful one, full of worry for the events of Barrio Fiesta that following weekend, full of stress from the schoolwork I’ve missed out on preparing for the event, and full of confusion about family problems I don’t have enough space to write about. But I turned 22. And it feels the same, only I think I feel just a bit calmer about everything now, having taken a personal oath to not allow things to make me upset. It’s unhealthy.

Barrio Fiesta was simply amazing. Despite the negative connotations of the Collegian article’s expose on the show, the dinner went extremely well, the show was the most enjoyable time I’ve had in a long time, and the after party was awesome. Our efforts put together were not in vain; we had a great time (partly due to the shots of Captain Morgan’s Mango Rum we had at Alumni Hall before the show), the dances were right on, the vocal performance was the biggest high I’ve ever experienced, and it was a great culmination of events for our group, as is true every year. I love my friends for coming to it again, knowing full well just how bad a friend I’ve been these past couple months since I’ve been back.

Spring break in Philly, New Brunswick and New York City was just unbelievable. Though I knew I had a full week of work when I got back for the rest of break, that first weekend was just unforgettable. I stayed over at Selena and Craig’s in Philly while we visited Tyler and Temple campuses, went to Hibachi with Cat and Helen, and even saw Danny, before I drove over to Prospect Park to see Mario. Words couldn’t express my happiness in seeing these people. It makes Rome not so much of a dream anymore. New York City with the crew after Rutgers New Brunswick was awesome. Now I can say I went drinking in the city. Quite an experience.

Random things: I sold my first painting, I am beginning to work with video editing with a new hard drive and the adobe software suite, Bob Yarber said he was disappointed in my body of work this semester so far and that I “let rome get to my head,” Eljay and I are in the biggest fight of our lives and I don’t intend on ever going back to some kind of peace with him, my parents’ business is doing extremely well and things are great between them and me, I am testing for my 2^nd degree blackbelt, and I am scared, apprehensive and excited all at the same time, and this new underground culture and murder “spree” in State College is freaking me out.

Bottom line, world hasn’t ended yet, and things are good right now. But I feel like I’m missing out on a lot of things this world has yet to offer.