How did I do?

At the beginning of the school year I made some resolutions, a list of things I wanted to get accomplished during my sophomore year. They were originally listed as "new-semester" resolutions, but I'm talking about them at the end of the school year as I am getting ready to leave, so they were kind of new school year resolutions. So for those who don't remember, here's what I wrote and how I did.

"I'm now at home at Rice, safe and sound, and need something to do before rehearsal this afternoon, so here's a list of things I'd like to get accomplished this semester.

1. Be more active. I've established a workout schedule for the semester which I hope will encourage me to run more than I did last year. I'm hoping that by setting specific times (Sunday after mass, Tuesday and Thursday after my 9:25 class) I'll be able to actually convince myself to get it done."

Haha. Well, I'm 0-1 so far. I didn't necessarily work out as much as I would have liked, but I definitely developed some better eating habits which helped me lose some weight which was kind of the original goal anyway. I guess there's always next year to start running the outer loop regularly.

"2. Better grades. My grades second semester sucked, and I don't want to have 3 C+'s at the same time again. I vow to get at least a 3.2 GPA for this fall semester so I can get back above the 3.0 mark. And no C's. I will tolerate a B- at minimum."

I didn't meet the 'No C's' mark because I got one C+ last semester, but my gpa is up to a 3.03 right now. While I haven't gotten all of my grades back for this semester I'm pretty sure that my gpa improved this year from last year, and I learned a lot more than I did last year because I studied harder.

"3. Try to get a good relationship started. Now that I'm totally settled into Rice, I really feel like I should start dating again. I did a little bit last year, but now that I'll have a bit more free time with fewer labs and hopefully fewer plays that I'll be in, I might have the time necessary. My trouble with girls in the past is that I'm very quick to find something wrong with a girl, and usually it's something silly like how she spends too much time studying or isn't quite religious enough, or not as intelligent as I am, or too much smarter than me. All kinds of stupid things that I tell myself mean a relationship won't work, so I don't try. However, I met someone about a year ago at Rice who continues to be more and more amazing each time I talk to her, and I actually haven't been able to tell myself there's anything I don't like about her. Someone who shares a ton of my interests, and who I can hold a conversation with for hours. Really funny, great personality, and I think that's where I should start."

Nothing happened between me and the girl that I mentioned last August because I met someone else during the first week of classes who was just awesome. And the funny thing about the comment about being in less plays this year is that I was in at least twice as much theater this year than last year. But I do now have a very amazing girlfriend, the girl that I mentioned two sentences ago that I met at the beginning of the year. Robyn is fantastic, and though it took us about 8 months to finally start being officially together, it was worth it.
However, my future blog posts about relationships will soon shift directions. The new question is what am I to do about dating someone who doesn't share my religious beliefs? Robyn is very Jewish and I am very Catholic, and while we both love God a lot and share very similar ideas about morals and how to live a good and holy life, I know that this difference will become an issue if we keep dating for a while, which is pretty likely to happen based on how things are going between us right now.

"4. Make 3rd south the greatest floor in the history of the universe. About 70% of my really good friends at Jones have all congregated on one floor, 3rd south, for this school year. I feel like we need to make it even greater than it was last year. We'll do awesome things as a floor, put up some awesome posters like last year, and have a great time."

Triple check. 3rd south this year was amazing. We have our own t-shirts, got campus-wide recognition for pulling a prank on the university, and hung out a lot. I got to know the people on my floor, Aaron, Monica, Gary, Carlos, John, Andrew, Nathan, Joey, Becky, Stephanie, Rick, Reagan, Travis, Rodolfo, and Mario, very well and we're gonna continue being close next year I'm sure.

"5. Meet more people, make more friends. As crazy as last year was with meeting hundreds of people for the first time and making strong friendships with several dozen people, I'd still like to get to know more people. Over a quarter of Rice's student body is new this year between freshmen and transfer students, and I'd like to reach out and make them feel welcome as well as find ways to include them in things I already do with my old friends."

While I didn't meet that many new people, I became very close to many friends that I already had. Mithun's advice at the beginning of the year was very sound, and I've learned that the quality of relationships is much more important than the quantity. I feel like I can talk to Kyle, Gary, Rick, and Ryan about almost anything, and I'll be roommates with two of them next year which will be amazing. Only problem is I'm gonna miss some of the seniors a lot, and I don't want to see them go.

4 out of 5, not bad.