Time Would Found an End for Any Person in Any Study

The one and only Professor Kramnick and I.

I didn't really sleep that well last night, despite it already being test time right around the bend. I could even say that I didn't get any sleep because my body felt so thrashed. Either way, while walking to Professor Kramnick's last school day, I met up with Selvyn, a fellow classmate and conversed with him about final we were about to take today. He and I were both nervous and confident about the final at the same time.

As for the final itself, the ambiance was very relaxed and calm as everyone was ready to finish with their academics at Cornell. It's not because no one liked the learning experience, it was just the idea of completing it, picking up your certificate, taking a selfie with Professor Kramnick and saying that you finished a literal undergraduate course at Cornell for credits is awesome. The final in my opinion was not bad at all. The questions were ridiculously easy (if you studied), although the time constraint for some (like myself) was killer. It was a 2 hour, + 10 minute beforehand planning and reading section. After the 2 hours of testing that flew by like a summer breeze we all began to get anxious. Why were we becoming so anxious? Well simply said, it's because so many of us are restless when idle.

Our discussion group with Vijay wearing shades, center left.

When the testing time allotted expired, we all went to Professor Kramnick for pictures. I specifically saved my special "philosoraptor" shirt for this very occasion. He asked me what my shirt was and I responded by saying, "It's a very popular meme" and he said, "Oh, I had to learn about those the hard way", how he had to learn about them the hard way is beyond me. We began to talk about the Bay Area and he said he would be visiting around the dates of March 4th/5th, he said "Bring word to Charles Ramsey that if he asks again, I wouldn't mind speaking in your district again." I told him alright "I will bring word", and he remarked "Yes bring word." A funny thing was that he remembers our school, and specifically the "orange columns", which are actually drainage systems attached to our building columns. Overall, he seemed very delighted.

Last meal at Trillium, it was fried fish, a REALLY GOOD BUTTER BISCUIT, chips, and cream of corn.

P.K. was not the only one to take a photo with, Vijay our TA also had that right of passage. What initially everyone wanted was a selfie with him--but then he suggested a giant group photo (or someone did) and everyone seemed in accordance with that. We all went to the courtyard entrance of Goldwin Smith Hall and took a picture next to the sitting statue of Andrew Dickinson White. Right after that, we all went to have lunch at Trillium one last time. Vijay amazingly was willing to join a table of us students for lunch (he never sits with students), perhaps it was because we had an empty seat and Trillium for the most part had none, or maybe just wanted to say one last goodbye to his students. Either way, we had interesting conversations about how on many subjects. These subjects included sports, about the latest Lebron James headliner and the World Cup. We also talked about what was Vijay planning on doing in the future (he wasn't very specific--but that was mainly because he was unsure), but options included being a lecturer, finding some sort of job at D.C., working elsewhere than Ithaca and even going for law school if all else fails. Other than that we also talked about video games, where we were all from and even politics.

After a rather long time at Trillium, Vijay bid us all a very brief and sad goodbye (knowing that we were probably to never see him again), but then he said we all had the approving consent of him to be able to friend him on Facebook. The remaining three of us Jason, Selvyn and I all walked back to Mary Donlon to drop off all of our school items in order to play pool at the RPCC lounge. I'm not an extremely good player at pool, but once I get the rhythm I begin to make rather excellent shots (don't doubt me on this even though I only play the sport around 5 times a year). Right after that, we went back to Donlon again and I was invited to play basketball, but first had to iron a dress shirt to wear for dinner today and I took a nap that was a bit too long and ended up not playing basketball with the rest of the floor.

Pool with Selvyn and Jason

Fast-forward to the restaurant, "The Heights", it was one of those hidden "gems" in Ithaca that serves fantastic food that is broadly American with touches of different cultural influences on some items. I ordered the mixed greens salad after filling up on various appetizers, and later on the whopping house cut steak. I could never imagine that so much meat could be on one plate, in a sense it was delicious with its citrus marinade that was comparable to barbecue--but not really, and the meat itself was very tender except "well done" on some parts when I asked for "medium well". In the other sense, it felt immoral (philosophy) and almost disgusting to eat so much meat in one sitting. I didn't finish my neanderthal proportion. Having consumed so much, there was literally no space for dessert, so I just watched everyone eat their over-sized cake proportions and creme brulee until Carla was kind enough to ask that I sample her dessert--I could only take one bite because my stomach was around the brink of maximum capacity.

As for the ride back "home", some of us went to the talent show and others went back to the dorms. I was an eye-turner coming out of the building and back being dressed so elegantly, I liked that feeling. A lot of people even asked, what's the occasion and responding "dinner", and then receiving the questions "OOOOOOO with who" and then saying "one last supper with the cohort" was a good feeling.

The entire building was still very lively and awake. My lounge had a lot of people from other buildings and floors to begin with. I decided to start packing and by the time I got back to the lobby, there was a good portion of the kids from class including Lisa, Jason, Morgan, Greg, Carla and of course all the floor mates who I endured so many card games and games of RISK with that it's literally pointless to start talking about it. It was really sad, exchanging goodbyes with everyone and knowing that it's a very good possibility that this may be the last time we ever see them again. Then again, that's where social media comes into play and on top of that we all exchange numbers and emails.

Mixed greens salad.

The House Cut Steak with a baked potato, truly worthy for any caveman.

Learning and experiencing at CUSC has truly been a once in a life time thing, that literally cannot be repeated in any shape or form. Whether it be the academics with P.K. or Mark and Reneta McCarthy or, socializing at the parties commissioned by the RCA's, making bonds with an pool of people that you will definitely never forget--it's incredible that this even exists and we're all fortunate to have this opportunity. Sorry about the late blog, I honestly fell asleep on the blog because it was so early in the morning (the lack of sleep accumulating within the past 26 days creept up behind me), and I was awake to say goodbye to the people who were leaving the building at such early hours. It was inevitable, but there would ultimately be and end to this portion of summer.