Chris Becker's Blog

This evening, after walking back from an impromptu study session, I walked into my room and poke my head around the partition to see what my roommate was up to. I peer over and see an empty room. My roommate moved out two days ago. That’s when it hit me: my freshman year is basically over.

I’m definitely a creature of habit and finals week has definitely thrown me for a loop. Couple that with the end of the spring semester and I’m totally disoriented.

I’m pretty sure that my brain thinks these finals are basically just huge tests and afterwards my friends and I are going to continue on with the same class schedule that we’ve had for the past five months. I’ve gotten accustomed to this lifestyle and it has become the norm. The “end of freshman year” is basically something that is too far away to care about. On more than on occasion I’ve said something like “See you next week!” only to have the person respond by telling me that next week is summer vacation. With that situation, I laugh and tell them that if I don’t see them again have a great summer but it doesn’t really register. I feel like I am going to see them next week but that is definitely not the case.

Within the past few days, the end of the year has become palpable with one word – Goodbye

It isn’t the temporary goodbyes that strike me, but rather the permanent ones.

For instance, I said goodbye to two of my friends last Saturday. However, I know that I am going to see them next fall when school begins again. This goodbye was sad, and I am going to miss them over the summer, but it’s not like I am never going to see them again.

I’ve already said two permanent goodbyes, and they were much different. Last Wednesday, I said goodbye to a coworker. This guy is a senior, and will be graduating in May. Wednesday was his last day. I had a few minutes to stop by, so I walked into the office and said goodbye. I basically told him to have a nice life, congratulations on graduation from college, and that it was great getting to know him over the past year. He didn’t say anything about it, but I could tell that this was strange for him. It’s almost as if he realized at that moment that his life here at Syracuse University was coming to a close.

I said my second permanent goodbye today. This guy was also a coworker of mine. It went along the same lines as the first. I wished him a good life and such, and he actually offered to buy me a drink (which I would never take because that would be illegal). This goodbye was a little weird to me, because this guy is the person that I am basically being trained to replace in the long run.

With both of these people, I am most likely never going to see them again. It’s weird to think that.

I am a firm believer that anyone you meet has an effect on your life whether you realize it or not. I hope that I have had an effect on these people, because they have definitely affected me.

If the rest of my college career goes as fast as this first year did, than it’s going to be over before I know it. When that time comes, I’ll be saying a lot more permanent goodbyes than temporary.

Earlier today, I felt the familiar buzz of my phone going off in my pocket. I pull it out and see that my good friend Jon had sent me a text message.

21 days left a cuse

Upon reading this I immediately stopped whatever meaningless task I was doing and started to think. My mind went wild. Where has the time gone? It feels like just yesterday I was nervous about going away to college, and packing up my clothes in my room. Graduation from high school seems like it was just a few months ago… Events from the past raced through my mind, and I began to realize that my freshman year of college is coming to a close. I then started to think about myself and my progress since late August.

Looking back at Chris Becker of 8 months ago, I’m damn proud of the progress that I’ve made as an individual.

Physically, I’ve gotten taller (hell yea!), lost weight, and lost a lot of acne. I exercise fairly regularly and am actually eating better here at college. Take that, freshman 15!

However in my opinion, my greatest growth hasn’t been physical. College has definitely caused me to change for the better, and grow up significantly. My Nana summed it up well when she said over spring break “I am proud of the man that you are becoming.”

Basically, when I started college I was thrown into a completely “sink or swim” social environment. Having mostly sunk in high school, I was determined to start anew and finally swim.

And swim I did.

At first, it was as scary as hell. I had never met these people before in my life, and now I have to live with them. What was going to happen? It turns out that I couldn’t have met a greater group of people. My floor-mates have become great friends, and I can’t wait to see where things go in the future. They helped me become a more social and outgoing person. Social situations that would terrify me no longer have any affect. I’m not second guessing myself anymore… I’m just being me.

Essentially, I’ve transformed from a chubby computer nerd into a well-rounded, social individual. And I love it.

A good reminder of my progress is my driver’s license. I got my license 3 days before moving into college. If I ever want a nice reminder, I can pull it out of my wallet, take a look at my picture, and look into the past. Oh, how far I’ve come.

As always, I came to an epiphany about my life whilst procrastinating; it was 3PM, and I didn’t have a headache.

Now, I bet you’re wondering, “Why would you expect to have a headache?” It’s a little strange, but I’ve been having these headaches every afternoon for the past week. I had no idea, but I was accidentally breaking an addiction. Now, I wouldn’t be totally honest to you, my readers (hi Mom), if I told you I didn’t have an addiction. Caffeine addiction is (was!) one of my vices.

So I like to have a cup of coffee with my breakfast, sue me! In fact, one of my most relaxing times of the day is breakfast. I can get up, hopefully not too early, have my first meal of the day, read some news, and nurse a cup ‘o joe. Once the caffeine hit my bloodstream I was able to function as a normal person in society. This relaxed pace is something that I left behind when I came to college. Gone are the days where I have enough time in the morning. “Breakfast time” is now around ten minutes.

With this routine, it’s really hard to sit and enjoy a nice cup of coffee. It’s hard to suck down the boiling crap that the dining hall passes of as coffee in ten minutes. After many failed attempts, and many a half cup later, I decided to switch to Mountain Dew for my daily dose of heart-pumping caffeine.

This didn’t last long. Shortly after realizing how many calories an extra soda a day was, I ditched that plan. I then moved to the “Coffee After Class” plan which consisted of getting a cup after my afternoon classes. I had a headache in the morning for the first few days, but my body eventually adjusted to the delayed energy boost.

One day I had a slight change of schedule and was forced to skip my afternoon coffee run. This was unknowingly the beginning of the end…

I’m one of those people where something out of sight is out of mind. I’m also a creature of habit. If something in my daily routine is shifted then I just think that it’s going to be shifted forever. Missing this afternoon cup ‘o joe just made me never think about going to the coffee shop again.

As of right now, I haven’t had any coffee for about a week. I’ve noticed that my overall energy level has increased, and that I’m waking up earlier. Also, the headaches are almost completely gone. On the long term, this is probably better for my health as well. Also, when I actually need caffeine to work, like studying or writing a paper, it will be more effective.

This isn’t to say that I’m never going to have another cup of coffee again. It’s just that it has been excluded from my daily routine. I am working on not being addicted to caffeine.

My addiction will most likely return this summer when I’ll have more time in the morning, but for now, it’s gone…

As I was washing my face in the bathroom I looked up, face covered in soap, and paused for a moment. In my head, details about my entire life, choices, and opportunities flashed before my eyes. All I could think is: “whoa.” I was in awe. Usually when doing monotonous tasks like laundry I think about my day or small things, but this was different. Usually, I would think “Wow, that girl at lunch today was kinda cute” or “Brandon said the funniest thing in the lounge tonight” but this time I got the whole picture. All of my choices and actions have led me to where I am now: attending a university and having one of the best times of my entire life. Were all of them good choices? Probably not. If I tried harder on that one mathematics test junior year would I be here? Who knows? Could I be having a better time in some other place? Who cares! What matters to me right now is that I am happy, and all in all, I think I am.

With great thoughts comes a great conversation…

Around 1:00AM this morning I found myself in the lounge, economics materials on the desk, with my good friend Ben. Ben and I usually have great conversations about tons of things, but I think this one stands above the rest. We started off by talking about a floormate who decided to take a job which would require him to give up his weekends to go work in another city. Naturally, my laziness told me that if put in his position I wouldn’t take it. My current work load is enough, and adding another commitment would be a mess. After talking with Ben, I discovered that there is much more to it than that. My mother is a woman wise beyond her years and she told me something that shifted the way that I was thinking about life. I was talking to her about my job on campus, and how my boss wanted me to work more hours if it as possible. My mother was opposed to this. She said “you have the rest of your life to work, enjoy yourself while you can.” That statement rocked my world for a moment. It made perfect sense. Why sacrifice fun to work your ass off, when you know that the rest of your life is going to be working your ass of? As a college student, I have four years of what most call “the best time of your life” ahead of me. Do I want to spend that time working? Hell no.

So yeah, I’ve realized that my online blog presence has been pretty nonexistent lately. I finally have my head on straight at college so hobbies are going to gradually begin filling my free time again.

Keep your eyes on the feeds for some new stuff soon! As always, stay classy.

Welcome to yet-another redesign of ChrisBecker.info. I made this new design because I was sick of the root of my domain going to my blog. This is my first 100% custom XHTML and CSS design, so bare with me; it’s definitely going to improve over time as I learn more about web design and web programming.

Notice a lack of updates? It’s due to the fact that I suddenly fell ill upon getting to NYC.

My family and I arrived in the city around 5 after fighting through bad weather and crazy Jersey traffic. There was a layer of fog so thick that the picturesque city skyline was hidden. After participating in the evening festivities I fell dreadfully ill and was in bed for the next two days. I spend the majority of my vacation in a bed! All of this was tolerable, because I was in New York.

On our boat trip on the first night, we got to see the Statue of Liberty with thick fog! (Blob of Liberty)

My family’s journey to New York City for 4 days has begun! The car is being loaded as I type. We’ll be staying in Times Square, and we’re seeing a Broadway show on Monday. Check back for more updates and pictues!

Here I am sitting on my couch with the family watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, when I suddenly hear a familiar internet tune. I look up from my laptop to see Rick Astley standing on the float singing his internet phenomenon “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

Brilliant… Astley managed to RickRoll the entire television audience. Ill have a video posted as soon as it hits the internet.

Edit: As it turns out, this wasn’t a last minute thing. It was mentioned on Astley’s Blog on the 3rd of November.
http://www.rickastley.co.uk/news/news2008-11-03.html

Here is the video!

Hi everyone! I, Chris Becker, would like to welcome you to the new and improved ChrisBecker.info. This new dynamic site is now running on WordPress 2.6.5, on Teknowligent’s iWeb web server. This blazing fast combination will provide you with fast access to all of my content.

As of now, this new page will host my personal information and blog. The blog consists mostly of my rants and banter, but check back ofter for updates!