#freshmanfall

Dallas's Breakdown

Neytri saves Human Jake Sully

Brandon Flynn and Dylan Minnette as Justin Foley and Clay Jensen in 13 Reasons Why

Tim Curry as Frank N Furter in the Rocky Horror Picture Show

Riverdale Mad World

And this scene in Riverdale

Dylan and David Drug Bust

Caitlin puts Jace in his Place

Mark-Paul Gosselaar as Scott Baker in Freshman Fall/She Cried No

Jess v.s. Dean

With New Years’ quickly approaching, I think about what I could have fixed in the last year. It’s a constant step of self-reflection, illumination, and a very interesting look into the past to ruminate on the decisions that I’ve made and the things that I could have done differently.

As I finish up my freshman fall semester in college, many questions have yet to be answered. There’s an air of indifference and the laziness that can only come with the holidays, although there is so much more to be done. It’s fitting that I begin my blog in a fashion that I’ve always began work—in a hurry, procrastinating on another assignment, hastily scribbling off my thoughts while beginning something new. For this personal blog, I will try to keep the posting schedule organic for now, and try to update it whenever I have a new idea or story to share.  

For posterity: celebrate the bad decisions because they make the best stories. Celebrate the present. Celebrate the little things in life, because they spur new beginnings.

---

Standing at the edge of the world, I look out, staring at the horizon. The waves lap at my bare feet, while my toes anchor themselves to compact sand. The cries of the seagulls bring me back to the present, as I inhale the salty sea spray, while my mind wanders to thoughts of a world where stress is nonexistent.

The sea-wash never ends. It only repeats, repeats. The waves beat on, endlessly, as I lay in the sand and swallow sea foam—the acrid taste of the water keeping me aware of my surroundings. I look once more at the setting sun—or is it rising?

Only old songs? Is that all the sea knows? Soon, my arms are limp from the work that they have done to keep me afloat. I push my face into the current and feel the shells in the ground, of all different shapes and sizes. Struggling to open my eyes, I feel around using my fingers, and touch is my only guide.  

My eyelids slowly open. The salty water stings. The crystal-clear water illuminates the innumerable shells, and they reflect the glancing rays of light cast by the sun.

Hello! Since college life is in full swing, and we haven't been able to craft/knit/bake anything blog worthy (read: anything at all), we decided to just post a completely written thing (with probably some memes thrown in). Also, before we get into this post, we think it's pretty safe to say that we want to make these writing posts a regular thing (partly for memory of our college days -- looking at you nostalgic Allan/Danny of the future. But also partly to apply (again) to be MIT bloggers-- looking at you blogger committee of the future.)

Anyways, let's get into this post, with a pretty big thing about our first semester, our schedule! (p.s. this semester they're the same, but we don't know about future semesters). In no particular order: 8.01L - Physics (Long) This class is as fun as it sounds-- not at all. There are too many equations and variables and definitely too too many PSETs (problem sets, the homework the torture of MIT students). Okay, that is a very negative description of the class, but let's take a second to qualify it. Once we understand the topics, it actually becomes relatively interesting. The reason why we have such a negative view of it, is because getting to that understanding involves a lot of this. And that's where the word in parenthesis comes in. Since we've had a deficiency in high school physics education, we chose to take the long version of the physics class. It lasts three weeks longer, going into the the month of Independent Activities Period (IAP) in January. We are actually pretty happy about that, because that gives us an an excuse to be on campus for an extra month and have the option to take other small/fun classes during that month. We are thinking about an intro to architecture class to see what that major is like!

ES.1802 - Multivariable Calculus We just had our first exam today and it wasn't that bad! Also, our teacher is British and amazing and understanding! She says "zed" instead of "z" and she says "well that's a pile of rubbish, isn't it?" when she makes mistakes on the board. She goes over proofs very well and makes the subject really interesting! It's probably our favorite technical class this semester! As mentioned in the last post, we are in a learning community called ESG (experimental study group) and it is soooo cool! We get to take GIRs (general institute requirements) in smaller classes and get to interact with our teachers so much. We are taking this class and chemistry through this program.

ES.5111 - Chemistry Chemistry! Apparently MIT likes to start teaching freshman chemistry with quantum mechanics. We were very confused (as were many of our peers, but not surprisingly, not all were) for the first 3 weeks, but we just started learning chemistry that resembles what we've been doing in high school (electron configuration woohoo!) So yeah, chemistry is getting better!

WGS.111 - Gender and Media Studies This is our humanities class this semester and it is AMAZING. We've never had a professor who was so flexible in how the class would go (she literally asked us what we wanted to do and be graded for in the class -- projects, or papers, or ect. --  on the first day) Besides that, the subject is super interesting! We chose our semester long project to be about lgbtq+ representation in children's cartoons. In other words we get to watch Steven Universe and Adventure Time, and call that "research.” And we get to make fan art for the shows (which we will probably post here eventually) and say we are doing "homework." BEST. CLASS. EVER.

Intermediate Painting MIT offers some really really cool art classes through the Student Art Association (and at the lowest rate for MIT students!) so literally the day before registration closed, we signed up and couldn't be happier. Even though we aren't getting credit for the class, we are getting to paint in a studio setting with an actual teacher. This is something we haven't done since 7th grade, so we are extremely happy about this class (maybe we'll even post some of our paintings here!)

Hey Drakoloid fans,

Jeff Henderson here once again. The creator and executive producer of many Drakoloid shows such as Diaries Of Alice’s Bedroom, Long Lost and now Freshman Fall.

Many people have been speculating and contacting me these past few months about “what will Freshman Fall be like?” “there are already other high school shows on Drakoloid so why another one?” “Will it be up to the quality of popular shows like Junglematic, Imperfect Patrick, ARTic, etc.” “Is this really the new Diaries Of Alice’s Bedroom?” and so many more questions so I am here to tell you a bit more about this show and exactly where it stands in the Drakoloid community.

Freshman Fall is a high school comedy show about four friends who start their Freshman year of high school because Freshman year in my opinion is always the toughest year because your 15 or 16 years old which is the age where your no longer a kid, but not yet an adult. So its a tough year and being the small Freshman in high school they learn to cop with the struggles of high school by simply having fun. This show is a fun colourful series in my opinion because of all the different plots that the four characters as well as the principal get involved in. We make sure that everyone has a plot in the episode and it gets really crazy/funny. 

The main characters are Dylan Jackson who narrates the whole episode just like how Alice Murphy on Diaries Of Alice’s Bedroom narrated each episode. You will love Zeke Tyson he is my favourite to write because he is an unpredictable character and Nicholas Merchant is a super talented actor and film maker. Bri “Brianna” Cruz is a fashionista she is also the stress of the group because she is a major over achiever. Keri Thomas is the head cheerleader and the popular one of the group and she kind of brings the whole “shipping” plots within in which fans I know would enjoy. And then theirs Ms. Rose who is the teacher and Principal Oswald who is the eccentric principal that is quite fun we have some very fun plots planned for him and you will see why by episode 7 and 8. So this show overall has diverse characters with different personalities and its quite an exciting show. 

People ask if this show is going to be another ARTic and to be honest it isn’t. It doesn’t have to have a popularity like ARTic, its a show of its own. Freshman Fall is going to feel more like a comedy that is for kids and teens of the internet. Many of these Drakoloid shows that have recently came out I have noticed has some profanity in it which is risque and can be fun. But in my personal opinion I there is nothing wrong with a clean wholesome show that doesn’t need vulgar jokes in order to be funny. I think Drake Vegas is planning to turn the Drakoloid network into a more kid friendly zone in the year 2016 and 2017. 

Thank you for reading this if you have, I hope I have excited you for Freshman Fall a bit more. We have many guest stars this season coming on that are quite the talent Leila Stroud, Hazel Woodley, etc. Im excited to be starting this next journey with you this fall.

I feel like I'm obligated to do this for posterity. Undoubtedly, I'm going to want to look back a year or two from now and understand that I had come up with a couple of takeaways from Freshman Fall. 

That doesn't make it any easier.

How am I supposed to summarize my first term? Maybe I can start by talking about what it was. A jump into the deep end that is not-home, a censored introduction to the real world with the screen of pseudo-adult supervision for reassurance, the time to go crazy and be stupid, the time to get serious and begin the real work. One thing's for sure: Freshman Fall was a lot of contradictions.

But is that necessarily a bad thing? This past term has challenged me to resolve a lot of questions. These questions helped me find patterns with my own behavior that I otherwise wouldn't have expected to be so aware of.

The simplest example of this boils down to a simple question: what do I really enjoy? By the end of the semester, a couple of things were clear to me: I love eating, dancing, and white boards. Go figure.

For posterity: interpret this. Your halfway-through-freshman-year Avi is going to try to express exactly what he feels at the end of Freshman Fall.

~

You're at a train station. A gust of wind fills the vacuum that was left behind by the leaving train. Or was it arriving?

A bunch of leaves draw your attention close by. Green, red, yellow, orange, brown, there's a fierce spectrum to be found. The leaves are dancing with each other, sharing in the cacophony of nervousness, excitement, and wonder. Even though they've just met each other, they seem to have been friends for forever. 

The sun keeps getting covered and uncovered by clouds, a fickleness that alternates between blinding you and darkening your surroundings. It's a bit chilly in the Northeast, so you're more than glad to have the sun warm you and more than sad to see it go, but you definitely didn't expect the switches between light and dark to cycle quite so quickly. It's almost as if your emotions mirror the presence of the sun; who knew you could switch so quickly between highs and lows?

It's snowing now. A tray, a snowman, a crowd of naked people running through the cold and snow, all of these disparate elements seem to replicate the surprising amount of things that happen on a daily basis for you. Your education has sharpened your ability to draw connections; what links these three together Avi? Just the snow? You've learned quite a bit, but you can do better. You will do better.

It's nighttime now. The wind skims the top of the waves of white, blowing glitter into the air, a whistle in the background. It is strong tonight, blowing more and more of the sparkly dust into the air with an intensity that you hadn't experienced before. There's energy in the dark.

You stare until morning, when the sun hits the pale sand dunes and sets the ground ablaze. Turn around, and you see a bridge spanning a river, the water a similar blinding gold. Look to the ground, and you're standing on it too.