Joys of MIT (so far)

Well, we’re over a month into the MIT program, and to say the least, it has had its ups and downs. I’d say it’s been good overall (and we’ve had more ups than these guys).

It can be easy to criticize our situations; however, I think that it’s very important to take stock of what we love about the people and things around us. That’s what I’m doing here. This is a list of things that have given me a little bit of joy during this summer term. I’m not pretending that this list is exhaustive, but here’s a little window into our summer MIT world:

• Seeing Whitworth over the summer and all the hard work that Facilities Services and various construction crews are putting into improving/beautifying our school.
• Cory delivering the best question of the first day (“Why the heck are we talking about sustainability?”).
• Tuesdays at Didier’s!
• Having fun with my “Extreme Classroom Makeover” group.
• Michelle helping Eric learn how to use technology during our first class.
• Going to two Spokane Indians games, one with Dr. K and one with Katrina.
• Watching Cory beat Mario 64 by earning all 120 stars… twice.
• Dr. Cherry admitting that there were some mistakes made on Day 1 (Note: This is not some sort of schadenfreude. This was a joy for me because most people in Dr. Cherry’s position simply wouldn’t be willing to admit their mistake. They might make a minor tweak here and there, but nobody would ever know. Cory has written about this phenomenon at Whitworth before).
• Reading Pink & Say out loud to Maryanne.
• French dips every Wednesday!
• Listening to Robby’s excitement whenever a new piece of technology is introduced (“that is SO COOL!”).
• Meeting new friends whose paths I somehow haven’t crossed at Whitworth for the past three or four years.
• Also, how about some new friends who are just coming into Whitworth? We have a great classroom culture, and they are a huge part of it.
• Figuring out this whole “cooking your own food” deal.
• Having some extra time to read.
• Watching Jenn’s stress about her wedding turn to excitement and then relief and contentedness.
• Eating Jenn’s leftover wedding cake!
• “Research & Assessment” and “Advanced Educational Psychology.” Kathryn’s classes are the only ones that are structured like actual college courses, so it’s nice to have that familiarity.
• Adam’s ongoing quest to find someone, anyone else who has read The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.
• DOING LAUNDRY WITHOUT PAYING FOR IT. That might seriously be my favorite thing about living off-campus so far.
• Counting the days until the Blazers tip off at summer league!
• All of the sweet hangouts that we’ve had after hours. I was worried that we wouldn’t have any free time, but here we are having BBQs, roasting marshmallows, playing board games, drinking milkshakes, watching movies, etc.
• Whenever Kevin gets a chance to teach. The man makes me want to take his high school social studies class.
• Realizing that we’re more than halfway done with the first summer term. Whoa.
• Keeping up on the blog, after all!

Yep, Ferris Bueller had it right (as usual). Life moves pretty fast; If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.