Thursday, February 23, 2012

2:00 am Meditations on Cura Personalis

            Today I described to one of my professors, Dr. Prentiss, a few of the many many things I am involved in, because he wanted to know why in the world I was up until all hours of the night getting things done so often. 

            “You should take up meditating,” he told me.  This isn’t exactly meditating, but it’s in the neighborhood. 

            I’m Catholic, so I dutifully went without meat today (I went to a nice dinner with the Visiting Scholars Committee and got a plate of vegetables…my mother would be beyond proud), and still have some smudges of ashes on my forehead.  But now it is 2:00 am, and my roommates and I agreed that since we began our fast after midnight last night, we were in the clear to break our fast after midnight tonight.  So I am sitting at my kitchen table, up to my elbows in Pauline theology, but faithfully accompanied by some Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey (how college girl cliché is that?). 

            I took a break from the huge project my friend Andy and I are working on, which basically involves paraphrasing and writing footnotes to the entire book of Galatians, in order to pull my sugary companion out of the fridge.  My roommate Liz, who is slogging away at invertebrate zoology, sensed the presence of chocolate in the kitchen and came over to join me.  We just leaned against the counter and dug around the walnuts for a bit, and then we started talking about our Lenten resolutions. 

            I got a really good idea for how to approach Lent from my CLC leader.  She suggested coming up with an overall goal for Lent, then adding something and giving up something to help you work towards that goal.  I’m into overarching themes, so I really like this idea.  My overall goal: Cura Personalis.  Cura personalis is one of Rockhurst’s core values and means care of the whole person.  I love this.  I am sure I have referenced it before, but I firmly believe that if ever there was a philosophy to live by, this would be it.  However, I still haven’t nailed down exactly what I want to do to achieve this goal.  I know I want to add daily mass once a week and a Lenten prayer book, but the giving up is a little more amorphous at this point—it was going to be no sweets, but the Chunky Monkey isn’t helping that, though I think I will do something related to physical health. 

            I haven’t been getting a ton of sleep this week, I am absolutely lost on my Galatians translation, and I’m about four days behind on writing this post, but as I was leaning against the counter with Liz, she said, “This is a nice moment.”  And it was.  Chunky Monkey, homework stress, lack of sleep and all, and a little moment like that soothed my soul more than anything this week.  Cura Personalis.  In whatever odd ways it comes. 


What Elizabeth and I Look Like When We Have Too Much To Do
(Or when we are pretending to be zombies on Halloween freshman year)

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Books and Nooks

            Obviously, as a college student, I spend quite a bit of time studying, and I am absolutely incapable of staying in one spot to study at all times.  My roommate Elizabeth can sit in the exact same spot on her bed every day and be productive, but that would drive me stir crazy.  So I do a lot of rotating, and because of that I like to consider myself a bit of a connoisseur of excellent study spots both on and off campus.  So I present to you a selection of my favorites, and the best times to inhabit them:

1.      The Honors Room.  Join the honors program just for this—couches, tables, and brightly painted furniture tucked in a room with a lot of windows right in Sedgwick.  I hit this place up after morning classes so I don’t even have to leave the building.  And maybe I’ve taken a nap or two on one of those couches…

2.      Rock Room.  This is a tricky spot to maneuver.  It is in our main building, Massman (think student union), so you’re bound to run into EVERYONE you know there.  But if I grab an orange and put in some headphones, my favorite booth there is a good place to enjoy some morning productivity without quite locking myself away.

3.      Library.  If only for the windows.  If you’ve got a couple of hours to kill in the afternoon, posting up in a chair by the third floor windows with a view if St. Francis Church is the best way to do it—sit there in the fall when the leaves are beautiful and you’ll never want to leave. 

4.      Conway Classroom.  This is the big guns.  Normally at night I like to do homework at my kitchen table, or sometimes I will head to the library if there is someone else there to study with, but a classroom in Conway, the business building, is where I go if I need to get some serious work done.  This is a test-tomorrow-cover-the-whiteboard-with-notes kind of location.  You sometimes have to call security to get them to unlock the door for you, but it is worth it if you’re going to be working until 3:00 am.  And they have a computer with speakers and a projector, so you can blast your Pandora station while clicking through an Art History PowerPoint. 

5.      KC Public Library.  This is where I am right now, and it’s the perfect weekend location.  Every time my parents have visited Kansas City since my freshman year, my mom has always told me that I should study at this library, because it has a solid wall of windows overlooking the plaza.  I wish I had followed that advice sooner than this year.  I’m looking out the windows right now (the only obstacle to getting things done here) and seeing nothing but bright blue sky and the towers and balconies of the Spanish-style plaza architecture.  My friend Emily and I have a book-filled but sunny afternoon ahead of us, and if we top it off with a late lunch and a little more work at the plaza Panera (for the record, I’m from St. Louis, so I’ll always call it Bread Co.), the whole homeworking on a Saturday business doesn’t seem too daunting. 

Here is a map of campus if you want to check out any of the locations I mentioned: http://www.rockhurst.edu/campus-map/


That little corner of windows is where I am currently sitting!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

The Cupboard at the Top of the Stairs   

I have an office.  Technically it is on loan to me for a while, and technically I share it, but for now I have my very own key and full use of said office.  I secretly love telling people about it, because it makes me feel all grown up, like even if I never figure out what the heck I am doing after graduation, at least I can say I had an office at one point in my life. 

            The office that I like to claim as my own is the Rockhurst Review office, and if we are really being honest and technical, it is more of a closet.  The office is on the second floor of Sedgwick, the humanities building (where I pretty much live).  I never knew it was there until recently; its door is right at the top of the stairs, and I always just assumed it was a storage closet (and like I said, for all intents and purposes it might as well be, since it is stacked floor to ceiling with books and journals).  But when I took over as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Rockhurst Review last year, I got my very own key and that little closet became half mine. 

            There are three things at Rockhurst besides schoolwork that I have pretty much sold my soul to (or at least all of my sleep and free time): CLC (Christian Living Communities), Alpha Sigma Alpha, and the Rockhurst Review.  The Rockhurst Review is Rockhurst’s nationally recognized literary magazine.  We have one magazine, Infectus, which showcases student work, but the Review accepts submissions from all over the country and is a real—albeit small—literary journal, graciously funded and run by Dr. P.C. Miller, an English professor (and one of my favorite people to chat with).  Freshman year I started helping with the magazine as a junior editor by reading submissions and giving my opinion as to whether or not they should make it into the publication.  I loved it.  I never really knew what I was going to read—a beautiful short story about a prison guard or an “incredibly true” Bigfoot story—but I knew that if I could someday find a job someday doing work like this (actually getting paid to read!) I couldn’t ask for anything more in a career.  So I’ve stuck with it, and I got an office out of the deal this year. 

Friday afternoons are my favorite time to sit in the office.  I usually go there after work and meetings and catch up on reading and organizing submissions.  There is a narrow window that looks over a little courtyard (affectionately dubbed “The Secret Garden” by some friends of mine), and the whole places smells perfectly like books.  There are shelves with old editions of the journal dating back to the 80s completely covering one wall, and the English Honors society occasionally uses the office for storage before their book sale, so it is a little cramped, but I have just enough room to squeeze behind a battered old desk with piles of submissions stacked around me and get some work done.  Listening to music (and dancing a little because that’s the beauty of having an office to which only two people have a key), shuffling through folders, and cracking a window to breathe in a little fresh air mixed with old paper smell, I thank my lucky stars that I found my own little corner of Rockhurst (literally) and that it’s given me a little better picture of what I want to do someday. 


Link to Rockhurst Review information: http://www.rockhurst.edu/center-arts-letters/rockhurst-review/