Survival of the unfit

After next week, I will have completed the most difficult quarter of my college education. I suppose it wasn't really that hard -- I am a communication major, after all, and I only took two classes -- but I worked full-time and lost my favorite watch somewhere.

And I am lonely. My former pseudo-boyfriend moved to the Midwest for some kind of job that is more interesting than wasting his potential waiting around for me to graduate, and I am sort of at odds with my roommate. She keeps letting her boyfriend move into our apartment without bothering to ask me, as if I am not going to notice some strange man lurking in the halls of our two-bedroom.

But I am surviving. It might not seem like much of an accomplishment, but sometimes the simple fact that I have made it through another day without going crazy seems like as much of an achievement as any ringing success.

I have picked up some indications that my sanity is waning, however: I apologized to a squirrel the other day when I blocked his path on a Quad walkway, but maybe I am just an overly polite person.

But while I admit I am not the poster child for quality, balanced living, I have still managed to get mere baby steps away from a university degree -- I curse those pesky final three natural-world credits -- and I have lived on my own for three years without accidentally killing myself. Sometimes I even take the time to wash my jeans before I wear them, though infrequently. I think laundry is boring.

True, this was not exactly my quarter of self-improvement. I did not lose weight -- in fact, I ate only fat and sugar -- shaped into bagel and Twix candy-bar form -- almost exclusively for the past three months. My obnoxious, whiny-sounding voice is just as annoying as ever and I keep answering my phone when it is on roaming. The only thing I think I have learned is what the word "context" means, and I am still not totally positive about that.

Nevertheless, I have determined that college students are so busy or hung over that it is impossible keep all aspects of one's personal, financial and academic life in order. It is impossible to bat 1.000 in this regard; if we are hitting it out of the park on the social scene, we are likely striking out in the studying department, for example. For me, it kind of goes like this: Let's say that everything is going fabulously at work. This likely also means that a) I am 668 pages behind on my Poly Sci 355 reading, b) my apartment is on fire or c) I am not getting laid. But some of the happiest people I know have some of the biggest problems, and they don't all take drugs to feel that way.

It is about choosing priorities: Sometimes, we have to put off some stuff, like eating healthy or being nice to other people, in order focus on more important things, like watching season four of Sex and the City on DVD.

An illustration: During a trip to my hometown Memorial Day weekend, it was absolutely necessary that I watch all 18 episodes of the aforementioned HBO series at my pal Brenna's house. That newfangled technology called home video has not yet penetrated the Wenatchee consumer market (we are too busy picking apples), so unlike its U-District counterpart, the local Blockbuster had multiple copies of each of the three discs available.

It was either act then or spend the rest of the quarter not knowing the fourth-year fate of Sarah Jessica Parker. I do not know if it was essential to also consume half a package of Oreos during the viewing, but that felt right, too.

Often, life is just about that kind of survival. I know that I will make it through this quarter, just like I know I will get over the inevitable Friday-morning hangover I am experiencing right now. And maybe while I am aiming to simply continue to exist, something great will come along and my life will improve without my even noticing. I might even find my damn watch.