Bye Bye Belmont

On Tuesday, May 1, at 4:48 PM CST, I was released from my final class as an undergraduate student at Belmont University.

Wow.

Actually, yesterday was one of the weirdest days of class I have ever experienced at Belmont. I spent the morning working on two projects that I had been, as always, putting off until the last minute. I got to strategic management at 12:30, and we discussed for about an hour before Dr. Woodard told us that our final exam was going to:

A. Be taken in groups
B. Be verbal
C. Include pizza
D. All of the above

That's right, the correct answer is D on that one, so my final in there just got a billion times easier. After class, I had to run up to the 3rd floor computer lab to print off my group report for record company operations. During this process:

A. The machine to add money to the print cards was full
B. The printer was out of paper
C. The print station wouldn't print half of my documents
D. All of the above

Again, D is correct. So, for the first time in my career at Belmont, I turned in a project that didn't include everything it was supposed to. I think my prof was OK with it, and the class is a joke really, but it still felt weird to do. We presented anyway, and it went very well, so I'm not worried about that.

Then it finally came time for artist management, my last class. I'm not sure I could have planned a more boring way to end it all: the entire class was presentations on the life of Elvis, most of which went into far too much detail and were far too long. Rather anti-climactic.

Now I'm down to three finals (two tomorrow, one Friday), none of which I plan on studying for for longer than 20 minutes.

I'm starting to get excited for all the stuff that's coming up. I get to see my family, go to Dallas, be in Minnesota, all that fun stuff. I wish I wasn't in wait and see mode on the job front, because if that was worked out I would be able to enjoy this all that much more.

I've decided that I get really frustrated with people who have this need to feel indispensable. People who somehow need to know that the party or the evening would not be the same without their presence, that they are needed. Really, all you should need to know is that people like having you there, and even that, in my mind, is debatable. Why do people have this need for something that goes beyond acceptance to the feeling that their presence is a necessity, that people would not be able to enjoy themselves without them? And, if it's apparent that this is not the case at a social function, they decide to just up and leave because the only place they know they can go where they will be fully appreciated is where they're alone. When I was younger my mom always used to tell us when we didn't get our way that, half-jokingly, we deserve nothing but death. The older I get, the truer this statement has become to me though, and it really helps me to put things into better perspective. As much as I may think I need or deserve something, the truth is I don't. At all. No matter how hard I've worked, it's just not inherently mine. I think that's why these people bug me: you don't deserve to have attention and affection and respect. You really deserve the opposite of that, as do I. So suck it up and be happy that you're still here.

And that, friends, is my rant for the week.