It's less than 72 hours to election day and I think i'm ready for it. I'm a bit nervous but i've got a pretty good feeling about. I'm also feeling like i'm definatly ready to move on and get going on the next big thing in my life. I have basically been living and breathing this election since January when I signed on with the campaign. But now that everything's winding down I've been thinking a bit over the past couple days about what I want to do next, and i've came to the conclusion that I really don't know what I want out of life yet. I have a few ideas about things, but no over arching direction yet. I want to be involved in Minnesota politics in some way or another as an elected official. I am completly in love with the idea of being an author although i'm not sure how much is my truly wanting to write and how much is just my interest in the lifestyle. I want to have a nice family and live somewhere that is really scenic in greater Minnesota. Possibilities so far are Duluth/the north shore, Bemidji, Fergus Falls, and Northfield. I would like to be rather financially secure as well, not necessarily incredably well off, but enough to be able to provide for my family well. I'm pretty sure I want a law degree and to practice law in some or another form (leaning towards trial law at the moment). But i'm not sure if I want to go to law school right after college or not. One of the ideas i've had recently would be to go and get a masters degree in creative writing first. Thanks to my mom's job at Winona State I am elligable for free tuition at MSU Mankato or MSU Moorhead both of which offer an MFA in writing. I could take 2 years do this and see where it takes me, and Law school would still be a financial posibility afterwards.
One concern of mine is that given the current political climate it wouldn't be possible for me to be both a writer and a politician. I don't want to feel that I could be held back or have to censor myself in order to preserve my electability. American politics keeps getting nastier as evident by the MN 5th house race, TN senate race, and VA Senate race (where Webb's novels have even come under attack). Maybe I can be both or maybe i'll end up doing something completly different. I still have some time to figure this all out. I'd just like to have a better sense of where i'm going soon.
Christian's father died earlier this week. I only knew Gerry for a short time, but he was a great guy. I'll definatly be keeping the Sande family in my thoughts and prayers now. RIP Gerry you'll be missed
My Cardinals won the world series this year. This is something that makes me incredably happy and i've somewhat been waiting for it my whole life. I was born during the 85 world series when St. Louis lost to Kasas City. Both of my parrents were major Cardinal fans and pretty much conditioned me to be the same. It's great seeing them finally pull it off especially after their collapse in 04.
I am going to be incredably happy when the election's over. We're 2 weeks out right now and it's getting down to crunch time. There's tons of work to do so i'm keeping really busy. I'm starting to get pretty tired of door knocking.
In other news, classes are going really well this semester. My history classes are a lot of fun. It's great having class that i'm actually excited to read the books for. It's also looking like i'm going to keep working on the rural housing policy issues after this semester is over. It's really an issue that knocked me on my ass and I think's pretty incredable. I wasn't aware of how big of an issue homelessness is in rural communities and how much people are unawre of it.
I've spent some time back in Winona for break. It's been nice to be home. My mom is off in Italy so i'm back here watching the dog, cat structural integrity of the house. It's refreshing to be out of Morris every once in a while even though I really do enjoy the town. I saw the departed friday night and I really enjoyed it. I've been on a big mafia kick ever since I read the godfather last june. I'm not really sure what it is, but for some reason mob stories really appeal to me. Anyways, the Departed is really well done and I would recomend that everyone go see it. Althoug it is fairly bloody. The story is really compelling and the action sequences are very well done.
I've been really stressed out lately. About pretty much every aspect of my life. It seems like almost everywhere I am at some or another corssroads in my life and I need to pick a way to go. Some things are big, life altering decisions and some are small and petty things, but everything really does add up at once.
I need to decide what I'm going to do about college democrats. I feel that the organization is functioning awfully. It's doing next to nothing to help the party, and it has created many powerstrugles that are distracting all of us from our main goals. I feel like i'm getting caught in the middle of it. I could quit the organization/stay out of it in the future and focus on school and my other interests. This would save me a lot of stress and grief and make my life a lot more plesant in the short term. Unfortunatly leaving the organization will not solve the problem for the organization. I see myself having an oppertunity to stick it out on the exec board (possibly run for president or vice president of it) and work hard over this next year to reform the organization. It's very clear to me that Minnesota is a targeted state for 08 and it could just come down to how well college students are turned out to determine the outcome of it. Maybe I shouldn't shy away from the tough fight. I'm pretty sure i'm leaning towards fighting this one out. Partly because I feel that i'm not alone on it, and there're others that would be there to help me out.
Next off, I find myself perpetually going back and fourth between what I want to do with myself long terms. I've been going back and fourth between being a lawyer and being a teacher for a long time. Today I'm pretty sure I want to be a lawyer. 3 days ago I was certain I wanted to be a teacher. Being a teacher appeals to me because of how I can improve the lives of people, set them on a good course, and I like a somewhat academic setting (summers off would be nice to). Being a lawyer appeals to me because of how I can have a direct impact on people's lives, by bringing justice to people in need, making sure they are fairly represented or compensated, and in general ensuring that people's rights are upheld. Either one of thse could provide me with a lifestyle that I would be very happy with. I'm hoping now that I think I know what I want i'll stick with it, but who knows.
I'm really not to happy with where i'm living right now. Despite living with close friends, It's not a good situation here. I'm thinking I should move out, but I don't want to burn bridges with people because at heart these are close friends of mine.
A friend of mine has been fond of telling me to just take a choice, go with it, and not look back. I'm going to try and do that more and see where I end up.
I promise i'll get around to writing a comprehensive update sometime soon, but for now there's one thing I want to talk about.
There's been another big racial incident on campus. Some poor girl has been getting harassed with racial slurs and even threats. Shit like this really pisses me off. I truly don't get how or why people think like that. Racism is something that I view as being a very big problem that we need to adress and fix.
All this being said, I really don't like the way that our campus responds to racism and racist incidents. It seems to me that people blow an isolated incident by an isolated person way out of preportion. For example, last year's huge debacle over the posters. I don't believe that it deserved 1/10th of the attention it got. A couple of people found a loop hole and put up some things that people found offensive (nevermind that they had the constitutional right to do so). Some people were offended by this and thought it was in appropriate and people came up with the idea of changing university policy to make the rule be that you have to have advanced approval to put up posters around campus. I don't like how some people on campus feel that any incident needs to be made into a big public hysteria. More and more often it seems like these events are turned into big witch hunts. People decided that the best way for us to combat racism and show that we don't approve of this is to wear black tomorrow. First off I think looking at something like that as a solution is incredablly shallow. We're going to combat a major social ill by wearing a specific shirt color. I think a far better way is for is to get the education that we have came here for and use it to better the world somehow. Topical gestures of protest are never things that get real results. Sure they can raise an issue about something, but beyond that they don't acomplish much. We are already very aware of issues of race and racism (as evident by how about 98% of us have been outraged by what happened). Secondly, I don't like the idea that having everyone that isn't racist or hatefull wear black creates. To me, this seems to be on the level of loyalty oaths or wire tapping. It creates the idea that if someone doesn't wear black they are a racist. I certainly don't feel the need to have our personal beliefs color coated. I don't believe in forming my opinion of someone based on color either what color they are or what color T shirt they happen to wear.
Tim Walz is the reason that i still have faith in the Democratic party to get anything right with campaigns anymore. He is truly the real deal. He's fought for our country and taught in our schools. He has the experience and outlook of exactly what should be brought to the table when governing our nation. I think, because of that he's going to win.
So it appears now i'm not going to meet Bill Clinton after all. He had to cancel the event in order to attend the funeral of former Texas governor Ann Richards. I'm a bit disappointed that I don't get to meet the guy, but I can certainly understand why he can't make it. So instead I get to hang out at the young voter forum at St. Thomas.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
worsthippyever's journal
Mason Jennings
sad
tired
frustrated