The Countdown Begins...
Hello everyone! In one week, the current Norwich University senior class will officially graduate. At that time, I'll become a senior and will have one year left until my graduation from college. Looking back, much of my time here has gone by very quickly, but at least I know that I will have made an impact on campus while I am here. While finals started today, my first final is tomorrow at 8:00a.m. I'm not looking forward to it because of the time, but I'm not worried about the content. After that, I've got a final at 6:30pm on Tuesday and Wednesday, and another 8:00am final on Thursday. I'm pretty sure that my Abnormal Psych and Network Security finals will be the most difficult, but I'm still relatively sure I can maintain my grades. Operating Systems and Forensic Psych shouldn't be an issue. My Information Assurance and Software Engineering finals were in class/papers/projects so those are already finished. Regardless, the majority of my next few days will be spent studying, but it's definitely worth it.
A lot has gone on in the past month here at school and I've been keeping busy as always. Junior Ring Weekend went great and I was super excited to get my ring. It definitely looks a lot nicer than my old high school ring and I'm glad that I'm finally able to wear it! We also inducted our newest members in to Upsilon Pi Epsilon for this semester. On a personal note, I've got my housing all squared away for next year and I'm looking forward to it. My Fiance will be graduating and as a result, may not be in Northfield next year. I'll be living with a couple of friends in a house here in town so it should be a good time. I also had the opportunity to begin serving on the committee for the Todd Lecture Series. The committee helps select distinguished speakers to invite to speak here. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it to the speaker this year, but I'm definitely looking forward to next year's events.
On my last post, I received a great comment from nufan and I'd like to take the time to address that now. The first question referred to cyber-attacks on the U.S. electric grid, and whether or not I'm ready to graduate. Quite frankly, yes. Events such as these are precisely the reason I chose to enter this major. While I'd be happy with any job after graduation, I really would prefer to work with the government. I feel as though it would be much more fulfilling work. The second question was to name one novel and one film that have left great impressions with me. First, I don't read much fiction. Most of my reading (which I admit that I should do more of) is related to technology. That being said, I'd say one of my favorite books so far is The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb. I'm not exactly sure why, but I know it has to do with the ultimate theme of the book. Basically, that we can't predict the unpredictable, and doing so actually tends to make things worse. Another point that I really liked was that it's not the unknowns that are really threatening, but the unknown unknowns are. It just seemed to fit in with some of my thinking. As far as a movie goes, it was a much harder decision because my tastes tend to change depending on my mood or current events. At this moment, I really liked Yes, Man for a comedy and Seven Pounds for a drama. Both of the movies have some interesting psychological perspectives. Finally, a question about misconceptions relating to NU students was asked. I honestly don't know. Anyone I've talked to usually have questions, but they've always been formed more generally. I suppose an overall misconception could be that the corps and civilians are segregated strongly. I would argue that it may have been like that previously, but it's not the case now, and the general acceptance of that gets better every year.
Finally, I'm currently waiting for a couple of publications to come out this month. I was chosen to be one of the four students in a new admissions brochure for NU. It's supposed to be out this month and it should detail my involvement here at school. Additionally, I had the opportunity to be part of a group test in SC Magazine and to write the opening article for that test. It's supposed to be in the May issue and should be out soon. This is most likely going to be my last substantive post of the year (unless I receive more questions, which I'll always answer). However, I'll be sure to post an update as soon as I find out when the brochure and article are released. As always, feel free to post/send questions or comments!
Thanks again for reading!
-Keith
Top three concerts i'd like to attend this summer:
1.) Dream Theater Progressive Nation Tour - Buying tickets ASAP
2.) Warped Tour - Need someone to go with
3.) Mayhem Festival - Have Tickets