App State Antics!

Well boys, today is August 15, 2014.

I just got back from seeing Slightly Stoopid in downtown Atlanta - I went with my girlfriend. We dated all through high school, but since she's going to Georgia Tech and I'm moving to Boone, we decided to remove our mutual exclusivity.

Goodbyes are not easy, and I've had to say so many of them this past week - it has been SO difficult. So many friends who I am used to seeing almost daily are now gone from my immediate life. I won't see these people again for at least 3 months.

BUT, enough sad shit. It's about time to move on:

APPALACHIAN STATE UNIVERSITY CLASS OF 2018!

I'm so incredibly stoked to finally be headed off to the fabled lands of where the beer flows freely and the ladies look fine. There's gonna be SO much new stuff going on, and so many people to meet. So much to learn, so much to see, so much to experience... As I sit here, my fear of fleeing Roswell is draining quite quickly.

So here's the deal: I'm gonna try to keep a little memoir of fun shit that happens to me in college. I'll update it as the shit happens - I hope you guys enjoy what's to come!

Also, I just wanna thank all of you for sticking around and hanging out here on the forums. I have good fun seeing what everybody is up to, and I hope we can keep posting about shit as we continue to develop as the young folk that we are.

Well, I should probably get to packing. It's currently 2:45am, and my parents are planning to leave at 6:00am.

Good luck Luke, keep us updated!

Good luck at college Luke! I'm glad to hear you're excited to go and I hope you have a great time. I had quite a few senior friends that graduated in May, so I get what you're saying about the goodbyes. It's hard to grasp that we're all in or off to college in the next couple of years, after knowing each other for so long.

Good luck, my friend! It's tough to let go of friends, but what can you do?

Here in Tennessee, thanks to the Obamer man we can technically get 2 years free of college, but I believe that's only for community colleges.

Have fun, Luke! It was too bad we were never able to get together on a game again. I look forward to your updates!

Sup guys? It's been a busy few days of moving in and meeting folks and doing stupid floor-based group activities! I've already got some shit to tell you guys 'bout, though.

So, here's a quick panorama of the room:

PAAAANOOOOORAMAAAAAA

My computer setup is to the left, behind the door. The roomie is asleep on our new futon -- we bought it used at "THE BIG SALE" this morning for $30 and dragged it up to our 7th floor room. Fortunately, it fit into the elevator. Unfortunately, there were several flights of stairs OUTSIDE that we had to carry it up. Such is the nature of a mountainous college. *shrug*

Anyways, yeah. So I moved in yesterday, but it feels like a week ago. Everybody up here is really cool and laid back; I haven't even disliked a single interaction I've had with anyone thus far, if that says anything.

About an hour after moving in, me and my roommate went down to the Sanford Mall (the middle of campus), he introduced me to this girl, and then the Chancellor of the school tapped on our shoulders like "YO, WHAT'S UP!?" So I met the leader of the whole school right after showing up, and even got an impromptu picture put on the @appstate instagram:

INSTAFAMOOOOUS

That's me on the far right. None of us look too great in the picture, but I thought it was a pretty sweet thing to happen.

So, some time passed and suddenly it was midnight. The girl in that picture was like, "hey, let's go to this frat party," so we called up a beeper and he drove us over to the house since there is unfortunately no frat row here at App. Because of this, the beeper system is used by pretty much everybody. A beeper is a student with a car who charges $2 per person for a ride to and from parties off-campus, since that's where all the frat/srat houses are. So we hop out of the car and walk into the party, which was full of Freshman and frat brothers. They had a keg and a BP table running. I drank some beer, took a shot, played some beer pong, and hung out on the roof for a bit.

I hadn't really considered rushing, but the party WAS a lot of fun. I might end up joining a fraternity -- we'll see!

We wound up getting home at like 2:30, at which point I stumbled into bed without even waking my roommate and proceeded to sleep like a li'l baby. Not a bad first night in Boone, no doubt.

I'll take some more pictures of the shit I do to make these posts more interesting. I hope you enjoyed the read! Feel free to ask questions or comment or whatever.

Sounds awesome, Luke! I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Totally betting five bucks that by the end of the year, you'll hate everyone there haha. My father always told me no matter how much you like the person in the beginning, if you live with them you'll learn to hate them.

I'm happy to hear that the College process has some good sides, it sure helps me when it comes to the fact I'll soon be doing the same.

I'd also just like to mention you look almost identical to one of my friends.

Dude, first year of college! It's gonna be sweet man!
That panorama makes me wish I had taken more pictures of my dorm room last year. I lucked out and got a single and it was fucking luxurious. ROOM ROOM ERRYWHERE.
On another note, sorry for being so inactive--I kinda forgot my password for about four months, and I was too lazy to reset it until I happened to remember it three minutes ago.

Today I hung out around King Street, which has a bunch of places to shop and eat. I grabbed an ENO hammock since EVERYBODY on campus has one (this is actually not an over-exaggeration).

Last night me, my roomie, and these two girls we met went to another frat party and played some Beer Pong. I actually wound up running the table with a brother for 4 or 5 games.

If you don't know what beer pong is, you'll probably want to know about it before you go to college. The Wikipedia page should have everything you need to know AND THEN some (link).

So we were playing two guys and each team had one cup remaining. Clutch time. My partner goes, "freshman is about to sink this shot." The other dudes start talkin' shit to me as I zero in on that final cup -- the notorious Bastard cup. Shit-talk don't phase me!

Just like basketball or any other throwing game, you can pretty much tell if you made the shot or not after you've released the ball. This shot was money - a perfect splash into the cup. Since my partner called the shot, he got pretty hyped when the ball went in. When people are drunk and hyped, they like making a bunch of noise, so he starts yelling and before I know it all 10-15 people at this small event are shouting, even though only a handful were watching the game.

Midway through the next game, the cops came knocking on the door. Even though they didn't DO anything but tell us to keep the noise down, everybody got pretty sketched because cops are assholes, so the party ended shortly after.

I was a little bummed I didn't get to keep running the table, but it was a pretty funny experience.

I suppose I'll talk about academics for a bit! Here's my class schedule:

MWF:
11:00-11:50 Intro to Film
2:00-2:50 Honors Seminar (Computer Forensics)

TR:
11:00-12:15 Intro to Visual Arts
2:00-3:15 Fundamentals of Leadership
3:30-4:45 Energy Issues + Technology

Since Appie is a liberal arts college, there are a bunch of "Gen Ed" classes that I've got to take. That's why I'm taking film and visual arts -- it's not really because I'm super interested in those subjcts. I am a big fan of film, though, and not just for entertainment value... I really appreciate the way some movies are filmed and always find myself contemplating why a director chose certain techniques over others. Film should be a cool class, especially 'cause the teacher is a riot.

I can't officially declare a major until the end of my Freshman year (30 credit hours). I think I'll try for something that revolves around the environment, since I think that will only become an increasingly lucrative industry as time passes.

My schedule is really quite easy, which is nice. Two classes MWF. TWO CLASSES. I spend 15 hours in class per week. IT IS GLOOOORIOUUUUS!

Also, check out this picture I took from a balcony on the student union building a few evenings ago:

A beautiful place to learn!

YO LUKE, Your school is playing mine on the 30th. Two days!

YOOO! How's it been going, everyone? I'm enjoying a luscious year. I thought you guys absolutely -loved- my last bit of relationship drama, so I wanted to update you again.

So, I got dumped. No doubt because I didn't share the same ideals as she did, either way it was toxic. I got over it. Unfortunately, I then decided to go after my best friend. The feelings were mutual, but she changed her mind at the last second and got back with her boyfriend. I gave her the choice, and she now has no friends so she could stay in a toxic relationship.

Doesn't matter; almost had sex

Besides that, I'm doing very well in school. Getting that GPA up, y'know? It's crazy how soon I'll be in college and having my life set. I'm going to try to live this year up!

I'd rather not speak about what happened on the 30th -- we looked like a crew of scrawny fools in comparison to the Blue. Michigan's football program paid us a total of $1.75m to go 1-1 against you, so I can live with that. We have a home game on Saturday, I am quite excited for that. Go 'neers!

I hope school is treating everyone as well as it is treating me.

IT'S GAME DAY! We play some shit school -- will take pictures!

Wow, shit. I forgot to take any pictures on Game Day. Sorry about that.

College is pretty fun, but the partying aspect seems a tad immature. It feels funny to say this as an eighteen year-old pledge at Phi Gamma Delta (oh yeah, I've joined a fraternity!), but I really do feel as if the party scene is silly. There is no sense of moderation anywhere around here, although I think this is actually a generational issue. I'm not sure how parties go in your neck of the woods, but I look around and see everybody drinking past the point of being comfortable. It seems like my peers have yet to learn how to relax and enjoy the company they are in -- instead, they get plastered to the point where being drunk is their sole focus. Meanwhile, I'm sitting around taking all this in... It's strange.

Yeah, college is fucking great though. Way better than high school. I feel like I'm just beginning to know myself after all this time. I'm interested to see where this train takes me. I hope you guys are doing well in school -- please leave a post and let me know what's up with your lives! I'm interested to see how you all are progressing.

Kindest regards,
Luketh

Hey Luke, great to hear from you again.

I think it's awesome that you're enjoying yourself without indulging in all the alcohol and whatnot. Hooray for anti-peer pressure. I hope you're all sorts of good friends and having a blast.

As for me, junior year has been great. Per usual, as my high school years have progressed, they've been getting more fun and more academically challenging at the same time. Same ol' same ol'. Like I said, I'm doing hw all the time so I haven't been able to play rs too much. Although... literally right before checking the forums I noticed a membership special which is even cheaper than the one I bought during the summer- 3 months at less than $5/month which is pretty great. I'm strongly considering it even though I don't have a lot of time, it's 3 months! Which will last me until pretty close to Christmas, so I'll be able to play during Thanksgiving break and part of winter break which is perfect. This also means I can probably get 99 dunge soon.
Anyway... besides that there's not too much going on. I've finished 2 of my 4 in-car driving instruction sessions so that's good.. I can't get my license until december though.

It just doesn't sound like a party when you put it that way, Luke. College sounds like one hell of a time, though. Tuition doesn't sound fun, unfortunately. I've decided I will shoot for Vanderbilt in my home state. I may go into debt, but I shall come out a debtful God!

We need to dung together, Masta. Any updates I should know about?

On this side I've gotten 2 girlfriends. Long story. I've bumped up the grades now, but it's still not enough. My jaw surgery is also quickly looming, ten days before Christmas. It's a shame I may not be able to have many more gifts. I told my parents if they weren't broke by the surgery that they should redo the front seats in my car.

Oh, no, it's a motherfucking party. And I do plenty of indulging. Allow me to clarify: instead of drinking to get drunk and enjoy fucking around with friends, people drink to get "FUCKED UPPP!!" I don't understand why -- people talk about drinking to blackout levels as if it's fucking cool. That shit isn't cool, that shit is fucking harmful to your well-being. It's immature. I feel like we -- as a generation -- may outgrow this with time, but why people repeatedly drink to the point of insane inebriation is beyond me. Learn ya limits, friends! It's far more enjoyable.

Senior year has been pretty meh for me. School itself isn't too hard, but there's enough work to get done that I don't have much free time. I'm visiting two more colleges over Fall Break, University of Richmond and University of Virginia, which will bring me to five schools that I'll be seriously considering.

Good luck with the jaw surgery Josh, I hope it goes well. I visited Vanderbilt but they didn't really have what I was looking for. Nice school and campus all the same.

Thomas Jefferson founded UVA -- there's hella history at that school.

It's funny to think that I was in the same boat as you at this time last year, Raurg. I've been through the college application and selection process, so if you need any help, advice, or just want to chat; let me know!

I also wrote about 20-30 college essays for other people last year, so if you need help on writing any college admissions essays, don't hesitate to hit me up! My services are free of charge to you, and any of you other high school seniors. <3

I really liked both schools, but UVA was too big for my taste. So down to four schools! I don't think I'll struggle too much with most of the essays, but I'm applying to the Joint-Degree program at William and Mary and that's a 1500-2000 word essay. Thanks for the offer though Luke, I'll hit you up if I need some help.

I suddenly remembered the forums exist!

Just read through this thread -- good to know you're not going too crazy at college, little freshie. I think the drinking will get more responsible as you start hanging out with an older crowd...freshmen tend to be the ones who are rushed to the hospital with alcohol poisoning. It's pretty bad. I'm not that into drinking at parties, but I'll have some sangria or wine or whatever if there's actually decent stuff. And hey, I'm turning 21 next week!

Yeah, if any of you want help with college essays and aren't afraid of having your essays ripped to shreds, feel free to hit me up I've been reading college essays for...four years now, I guess, and I even have some seniors from my high school school sending me their essays for this year's round of applications.

15 hours of class a week is something I never had as a freshman...I had ~24 hours a week thanks to things like orgo lab and Chinese class every single day (also everyone here does at least four classes each semester). This year, however, I have about 10 hours of class a week and it is GREAT. I have class from 10 - 12 on MWTh, 10 - 11 on Tues, plus 1-3 on Th and then every other week I have an hour-long meeting on Friday. It's literally the best thing ever. I'm taking a modern Chinese literature class (taught totally in Chinese), an ancient Chinese philosophy and ethics class (we have Gen Ed requirements, too), a class about plants important for human civilization (I needed one last class to fulfill my major requirements...and it's pretty cool, I'm writing a term paper about chocolate), and my last class is a one-on-one seminar I'm doing with a stats professors, learning about statistical methods important in analyzing biological data. Apart from all that, I'm working on my senior thesis and generally just trying to have a lot of fun outside of school.

I definitely plan on taking a gap year before applying to grad school, and I don't quite know what my plans for that are yet. I'm on good terms with the director of the Chinese Dept. and I might be working with her on developing the first online Chinese courses at Harvard next year, in addition to doing some TA'ing for random genetics classes.

Dammit Swallow, I really wish you'd come around more often. It's good to hear from you, as always. Happy almost birthday! What is your senior thesis about? I'll have to write one four years from now, assuming I maintain my status as an honors college student.

Your classload sounds quite lovely -- if you weren't taking so much Chinese, I'd be jealous. What are you majoring in, again?

I'm majoring in evolutionary biology, with a focus on genetics. To that end, my thesis is about comparing gene expression differences between normal plants and plants with doubled genomes (all in the same species).

Isn't it midterm season for you guys, too? How are your first ever college-level exams?

Sounds like a compelling read; I'm sure it will hit the NY Times best sellers list upon release. I got a 100% on my intro to film midterm. It was easy as hell. I also got a 91 on my first-ever college test in Energy Issues, which was not such an easy feat. I'm quite proud of it.

I'm taking a leadership class for my Plemmons scholarship. While the class is a tad redundant, I love the teacher, and I have learned a thing or two about leading people. Of course, I already knew a shit-ton about leadership and teamwork from all of our Pizza Bandit adventures, so I'm one step ahead of everyone else. Our midterm is tomorrow -- I should do pretty well.

Yeah, let's be real, leading the Pizza Bandits was the most involved leadership position anyone could ever hope to have as an extracurricular activity.

No joke, I actually feel as if I could put that shit on a resume and explain it to the point where an employer would accept it as a real leadership position. Shit was some involved work.. I really fuckin miss it, too, but what I've already learned about how to manage people and events via the keyboard is paying off in real life fraternity shit. I owe it to TPB for the lessons.

Yeah, getting any number of people together and keeping them connected is a huge challenge. Not to mention, trying to organize group events -- how to organize something everyone's interested in, how to get everyone there at the same (or at least similar...) time, how to keep everyone together... That shit was life or death back in our wildy roaming days.

:') (CLICK!)

That link right there will make you all sorts of nostalgic. Haha, I'll never forget parading from Edgeville to Bandit HQ to the chapel, all the way across to Steve Island before marching back down towards the lobster fishing spots, and the triumphant victory walk back down towards Varrock. Team-47 capes and green dragonhide.. Damn, good stuff.

Steve Island was such a cool place in the game. Not to mention the Bandit HQ.