Of course there is more to J-Term than just class. In my case, it has been diving, as our season winds down toward the Conference meet in four weeks. Only four more weeks of collegiate athletics. That’s a bit unnerving.

I had good cause for my travels; Hailey Harren, one of my teammates and a fellow senior, was running in cross-country nationals in Cincinnati and a group of fellow runners banded together for the journey to support her quest. The quest was long and arduous–the route through Illinois and Indiana rivals South Dakota for dullness. There was peril–getting somehow disconnected from the interstate and ending up 20 miles off our route in Freeport, Illinois (home of the Fighting Pretzels) was rather unexpected. But mostly, there was fun (especially hanging out en masse in Kentucky the night before the race and later at the race itself). One quick note on the race: it was a cross-country event that I wish I could have run. Mud was everywhere and I emerged covered nearly from head to toe in the stuff. And though Hailey did not win her race, it was a journey that will never be forgotten (and one that left me behind in my classes and sleep-deprived…but it’s all good).

So if only in the name of familial peace, I’d rather see Gustavus do well. But it goes beyond that. The St. Olaf swimming and diving team is essentially the same as ours–except they don’t really have fun. Or at least don’t act like it. We wear our hearts on our sleeve and honestly, we are goofballs to some extent. A story to illustrate this. When I was a freshman, our team trooped off to faraway Steven’s Point, WI for a rather important two day invitational. Now that’s a lot of time and well, the men’s squad cooked up a bit of fun for the second day. Before the final session began, en masse we participated in a little synchronized swimming routine that we cooked up the previous night. The crowd loved it. Well, most of the crowd. There was one group that disagreed: the St. Olaf men’s team, who had the temerity to boo.

That’s just not cool. So off I go, leaving y;all with a nifty little acronym that I won’t deign to explain out of concern for the sensibilities of some reading this: BAFO.

As for me, I feel like I’m in a Sisyphian cycle. Whenever I accomplish one thing, another looms in front of me. I took the GRE last Monday and did well enough on it…but now I have to buckle down on the applications for graduate school (which might be worse!). Cross-country’s Conference race was Saturday and, well, I blew up like I always do on that course. I still have one race left in my collegiate career on Friday…but then that’s over for good and THAT really bums me out. This team is like a family to me and once I’m done with it, life will change in a drastic way. But then the spectre of diving will loom large. Technically practice has been going since the beginning of October but it’s been secondary to running. Not for long, I guess.

It’s just a continuous cycle, always going. And going. And going. It’s hard not to feel a sense of ennui.

And so people modify their dress to fit in and they modify their body images to try to keep up with the Joneses (or the Johnsons/Andersons here at this bastion of Swedishness). Suddenly what was once good enough is not good enough in the hyper-visible world of Gustavus. So let us ask ourselves, do WE perpetuate the cycle of looking pretty that can wreak havoc on others’ (not to mention our own) self esteem?

In other news around here, the E Pluribus Gustavus 2.0 show was a stunning success (again delivering the tough messages that the campus needs to hear) after a mind-boggling session that lasted from 8 PM to 5:30 AM on Monday morning to get the show into shape. Also, tonight’s BRA concert was very well-attended and our artists, Chris Bacon and Brenda Weiler, were phenomenal. And now I am glad to have my platter (mostly) cleared…for now.

Just as long as I make it to Wednesday.