"This Is Water"

The first week back at school after Thanksgiving break, I was feeling very little motivation to do my work and stay engaged.  I spent a lot of time doing what I like to call "destressing activities," like cooking, knitting, journaling, and listening to music.  I'm more into the swing of things now, and my workload seems manageable (just turned in a big paper for biochem and now starting to work on a race and gender project that actually has me excited).  I still can't quite believe that the semester is just about over.  I'm glad to wrap things up, but I'm also intimidated by next spring's classes and I'm wondering what other new things spring semester will bring, as I'm always surprised by how different each semester is.   Something that's been weighing on me is the thought of finding an internship for this coming summer, but I haven't been able to put enough time into looking/applying yet.  

At the encouragement of a friend I watched David Foster Wallace's commencement speech at Kenyon College in which he talked about learning how to avoid our "default" settings.  We experience everything through the first person, through our own personal lens, which gives us the idea that we're the center of the universe, and we have to be pretty intentional if we're going to act like we truly believe that's not the case.  When I was feeling all disenchanted with school, it struck me as silly to get caught up in my meaningless assignments and obligations.  I went to a vigil for the International Day of Solidarity with Palestine that only reiterated that there are so many more important things to worry about that any of what I have going on.  In a way, this was me justifying my lack of desire to get things done, and obviously, me caring less about homework is not going to bring about change in the world.  Still, it's a valid concept.  How do we think outside of ourselves in a more constructive way?  It's selfish for me to complain about my own little problems, but I don't really know how to be selfless.  And I'm not sure what the balance is between being content with things as they are and wanting to do something more.  

Anyway, life is good, at least for me right here right now.