Long weekend by Mollie B. '06
It was a looooong weekend.
So this weekend was a long weekend, in honor of Columbus Day and also in honor of student exhaustion, and therefore I would like to write a paean to the MIT long weekend.
The abundance of long weekends is one of my favorite things about the MIT schedule — we have approximately one three-day weekend per month during term, and sometimes a four-day weekend. This semester, we started school on September 7, have days off on September 19, October 10, October 11, November 11, and November 24/25 (Thanksgiving). The calendar, I think, reflects the fact that MIT students really go for delayed gratification; it’s easier to work work work for a few difficult weeks in a row when you know there’s a break coming up, no matter how small.
And let me tell you what, this weekend was just what I needed to recharge my metaphorical batteries.
So far this weekend, I have slept for 30.5 hours (and will probably sleep at least 10 tonight), cheered at a (VERY RAINY) football game, watched a (VERY ROWDY!) game of Beirut, worked on graduate school applications, gone out to dinner at CPK, gone grocery shopping, allowed my boyfriend to dye my hair (scary!), watched pro football, called my mom, entertained Adam’s parents, argued about ethics with my friend Mark ’07, done homework, and generally lazed around in a hooded sweatshirt and enjoyed life. Hooray for laziness!
A note about the last entry.
Many people noted that my boyfriend is not actually a very good case for an entry with the title “How to do everything wrong…”, since he actually didn’t do that much wrong.
This is true.
I will defend myself by saying the following:
1. The title is an allusion to the entry I wrote about myself, and I actually did do quite a bit wrong in my MIT application (didn’t interview, didn’t take the most challenging courseload available to me, didn’t take any science APs, had a lower SAT math than SAT verbal, wasn’t ranked first in my class).
2. While Adam wasn’t quite as lame as I was, he still didn’t have the things a lot of people consider “essential” for a successful MIT application — the kid’s SATII writing was a 450!
I’m just out to dispel the notion that you need a set of perfect test scores and grades to get into this joint. :)