A Blog

"Everyone elses' blog makes everything seem a lot more fun than it actually is, but in general, COSMOS is a great experience and I have had fun so far."-Aaron Lee

I commend Aaron for his observation, because I find that as the days wear on, the initial enthusiasm for COSMOS is slowly wearing thin. Theoretically, this "blog" is a board for constructive criticism so I guess I should offer some.

Mandatory Blog: "You guys are all encouraged to blog twice a week." Those who fail to comply will be rebuked. I understand the need for any respective program to receive constructive criticism from its constituents, but I object to it being implemented under a facade of free will. I feel a blog is a page where one can speak his or her mind when they have something to say. It could be encountering something unusual that day, a clever thought that has been dwelling, or a some other event that doesn't occur daily.
Instead, it seems like we have been instructed to keep a diary. Our weekly assignment: keep a diary with biweekly entries and by the way, it can be publicly accessed unrestricted. Perhaps there is not really much difference between a blog and diary but I personally envision a generic diary entry as:
"Dear Diary: Today I had ____ for breakfast. It was ____. Later, I engaged in some activity in which 20 other people have already "blogged" about prior to me."

But I digress, I am not arguing about the differences between a blog and a diary. I am more concerned with the fact of having mandatory, unanonymous, censored feedback.
Either make it an assignment to send feedback every few days....or make a suggestion box(or inbox) which is on a completely voluntary basis.


Enough on that topic.

So whats new at COSMOS?

The food is getting repetitive. The first week, it seemed like a kid's dream come true. "ALL YOU CAN EAT FOOD FOR A WHOLE MONTH! NONE MOM'S COOKING FOR FOUR WEEKS! YEAH!!!1!" But like the kid in a candy shop, you will start getting sick of all that food after a while. I can't believe I am saying this but: I can't wait for visitation weekend to have some of my mom's homemade cooking. =)

The former restrictions are loosening up to some extent. RAs are not required to walk us down to our classes anymore, although I feel as though they left the training wheels on for a bit too long. We are all high school students; for the most part, we are all mature enough to have been accepted to COSMOS and to take care of ourselves once we have been shown the way. Sure, it is imperative to establish a strong foundation: showing the ropes around campus for the first few days, but after that, we should be allowed more liberty if we personally feel we are able to handle it.

Of course, there are those who stay up past lights out, engage in inappropriate behavior, and shame their cluster and their suite in a variety of ways. Liberties should be rewarded based on maturity, but then again it would be a bit difficult to micromanage that.

So we had a movie night today. The movie was Anchorman. Which brings me to another issue: mandatory activities. I did not mind the ice breakers the first week and the COSMOS Olympics, in hindsight they were actually really helpful in breaking down the barriers within our cluster and other COSMOS members.
But mandatory movie night? Really? I have already watched Anchorman before and it is a one-time movie: maybe I just don't enjoy the crude humor as much as other people but I found it painful to sit in that room for the whole 1 hour and 48 minutes. And there was no alternates either. We were not allowed to leave to sit outside in the hall with the exception of the one kid who was smart enough to have brought his laptop over. In addition, after the movie was over, I was slightly peeved that the people who escaped the theater early were expected to wait for the RAs to hold our hands back to the dorms.

I apologize for the caustic tone this entry is written in. I really love the COSMOS program and everyone in it. But are just some minor issues that really bother me and I feel should be brought up.