Falalalala, lala, la, la.

Though I’m certain that it depends upon your department, I’ve found that as I progressed into upper-classmen years that finals season is characterized less and less by actual tests and more and more by Projects.

Which, in all honesty has its upsides and downsides like everything else in life. So as a technical 16th grader, allow me to offer you my lived experience as I evaluate the pros and cons of each of the two major types of grade-defining assignments.

☆ PROJECTS ☆

CONS:

1. If it’s group work, then you’re going to have to work around other people’s schedules (and pick up slack).
2. Could require performance.
3. It’s going to make the penultimate week of classes stressful.
4. Requires research.
5. Sometimes your grade is dependent on the bias of your teacher.

PROS:

1. If it’s group work, then you have the opportunity to network with people you’ve met throughout your class.
2. Could require performance!
3. Because projects are often due early, you’ll be done with some of your classes before finals week.
4. You are going to learn things throughout your research.
5. At the end of it all, you’ll have created something tangible.

Verdict:

Projects are my own preferred method of examination.

While I’m not the biggest fan of group work, I have actually met and made connections through final projects that have been powerful enough to teach me things and make me friends. I also love performance though I know that that’s a serious con for a lot of people. And ultimately, even though tests examine more concepts more broadly, I find that the in-depth niche nature of a project leads to a better and longer-lasting understanding of one particular class concept.

If I were to grade the theoretical concept of Projects, I’d give it a B.

You’ll actually learn something from it, and there’s potential for it to be great, but the reality of group work and so many uncontrollable factors isn’t great.

☆ TESTS ☆

CONS:

1. Your final week of classes is going to be a marathon.
2. You’re going to forget over half the stuff you crammed into your head a year after the test.
3. All of your stress will bubble up to one specific day.
4. Classes will sometimes charge you for scantrons (which is the most superfluous expense ever, you’re saying my tuition doesn’t account for scantrons?)
5. Teachers get really finnicky about tests and will tote them around as life-defining experiences (they’re not)

PROS:

1. More definitive answers, less ambiguity of “am I on the right track here?”
2. Takes less time (because honestly, how many of us study weeks ahead of time).
3. You get your grades back quicker.
4. There’s usually a study guide to help you make flash cards with.

Verdict:

OOF. I thought this was going to be more balanced but my bias is clear here. Maybe it’s the standardized testing that was drilled into me as a kid, or the knowledge that I’ve forgotten over half of the things I was ever tested on, despite consistently getting good grades on my tests. I’m not a fan.

BUT! I do admit, that when I’m assigned a final exam rather than a project, there’s a little part of me that says: “Oh good. There’s less work here.” And the importance of reducing stress during finals season like that cannot be understated. Even if I’m learning less, sometimes mental health is more important than objective learning and academic improvement.

If I were to grade the theoretical concept of Tests, I’d give it a C-.

Passable, but not by much. At least it’s like a band-aid rip: painful, but mercifully quick.

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I hope that everyone had more projects than tests this semester, unless you have a completely different viewpoint than me in which case I hope that you had more tests than projects!

But more importantly, of course, I hope that you’ll have a happy set of Holidays, to whichever beautiful set that you do or don’t celebrate!

But unfortunately, I’m out of time! The Stanislaus Student bloggers go on break after this week, and will be returning in February of 2021.

No, it’s okay, don’t cry! I know you’ll miss me, I’ll miss you too.

But it’ll be good for both of us. I promise. Distance makes the heart grow fonder.

I have lots of fun ideas for posts that I want to make, and I think the rejuvenation over break will help a lot in getting me back to tip-top shape to share some truly amazing things with you all!

Did you know that we have a study abroad program at Stanislaus that’s cheap and affordable and that I used? Did you know that we have a set designer on faculty that worked on James and the Giant Peach and other claymation movies? Did you know that we have theater performances that range from the intellectual and important Silent Sky to the hilarious and farcical Boeing Boeing?

If you didn’t, then come back every Tuesday in February and beyond to hear more about Stanislaus State and my experiences with it!

Take care, and know that you’re worthy and lovable.

-Nathan

I so rarely get to come on campus nowadays that when I do it’s a bit exciting. It’s weird to think that something so mundane as driving to campus would be something that I would find some happiness in, but its a reminder for me to stop and enjoy the world a bit.

Stanislaus is and has been one of the most beautiful places in Turlock for a long time now, so after filling out my COVID self-screening, putting on my mask, and driving to campus, I parked a little bit further away from my destination than I needed to and took to strolling campus just for the sake of it. And I’m rather glad, because if I hadn’t I may not have made the friend that I did!

This is Tony! (And yes, the pandemic has made it so that meeting a cat does constitute in my mind as making a new friend!) Tony was regally sunbathing atop his trashcan throne when I saw him and so I was faced with having to make the decision: Do I approach, or do I respectfully keep my distance?

I made the universal sign of cat-affection by pressing my lips together and making the sound: “pss pss” and Tony perked up and came right up to me, giving me permission to pet.

I gave him a good scratching and petting and was mindful not to expose my hand to his claws or anywhere that he wouldn’t like, and then afterwards I bid him good day and left to wash my hands. It was honestly a lovely experience 🙂

There’s actually quite a bit of protocol surrounding Tony and his fellow feline companions on Stanislaus, and while there’s a lot of lovable furrballs around, there is something vitally important about it all:

Respect the Cats.

You see, Tony is actually cared for in part by the AdvoCats, a group of students, faculty, and staff that love and care for the animals on campus and provide them with food, shelter, and occasionally even medicine. But the biggest message the AdvoCats seem to present is that the cats need to be respected.

Stanislaus is not a refuge for cats. And the cats that do live on campus have likely been neglected, abandoned, or run away from poor living situations to end up here. Cats are territorial in general, which means that the cats that already exist on campus will fight to keep their territory, and it’s unknown whether or not they will take kindly to new introductions.

The very reason the AdvoCats were founded, as you can read on their official Q&A document, is that the cats needed a voice and needed to be cared for. Unleashed dogs, people with malicious intentions, and general outdoor living can make for a dangerous life for innocent animals, so a little bit of organization is an excellent thing.

In fact, the AdvoCats explicitly state that they want people to know that the “campus fur babies are well cared for”, and that encouraging compassion for the creatures is vital.

In respect of the AdvoCats wishes, I don’t want to disclose the location of where I found Tony, but their official page does say that in trying to foster a community involved effort to care for the kitties they will accept volunteer or fiscal support, so I will say that if you find yourself encountering Tony or one of his companions, asking within the nearby building of how you too can help the cats would be well-received 🙂

But! What I can say and do, is leave everyone with a little bit of general cat-related wisdom:

• Respect the cat’s boundaries. Approach slowly, give them plenty of space to run away if they want to. Hold out your hand in case they want to sniff you.
• Don’t pet what they don’t want pet. Be mindful and responsive! To avoid getting a retaliatory claw or bite, let the kitty rub up against you and show you where it wants to be pet. And as a general rule, be careful with belly rubs!
• Don’t touch your hair or face. Even with well-tended cats like Stanislaus’s, make sure that you still keep yourself safe and clean as well! Be sure to wash your hands after petting unfamiliar felines.

If you follow those tips, and are generally being respectful, caring, and lucky enough to find yourself with a friendly kitty at Stan State, then I hope you get to have as good of an experience as I did with Tony 🙂

 

In the spirit of the upcoming mass consumption of turkeys, I decided to dedicate this blog post to the dominant species of Stanislaus State University, the Canadian Goose, an avian of similar size and stature to the beloved turkey.

You see, I’m mostly joking when I tell people that the Stan State hierarchy of species goes:

1. Canadian Geese
2. Humans
3. Cats

But I’m only mostly joking.

Any student that has spent enough time on the lush green grasses of campus and sat and studied next to the serene water features has seen the true owners of Stan State waddling around campus.

For the most part, the geese and students coexist, each species keeping to their own. An occasional honk from a goose and a startled yelp from a student will ensure that each party keeps their distance from each other.

With the important exception of when a mother goose has her line of fluffy little yellow goslings following her, in which case neither Heaven nor Hell can stand in her way and we all must bow to her whims.

But even though I do firmly believe that the pride and stature of the Canadian goose alone is enough to place it above humans when it comes to the resident species of Stanislaus, there are much better reasons for placing it so highly.

In a history that shares tragedy along with most of the indigenous populaces of North America, we have few surviving documents from the Yokut tribes that called our Central Valley home before us, but we do have at least one account of someone who knew them well.

Thomas Jefferson Mayfield, whose account is documented with the help of Malcolm Margolin in the book Indian Summer, is possibly the only outsider to ever live with the Choinumne Yokut peoples for a decade, or he was at least the only one to have his experience recorded in writing.

“My daddy had traveled a great deal and it was not easy to get him excited about wild flowers or pretty scenery. But he said that he would not have believed that such a place existed if he had not seen it himself…. I have never seen anything to equal the virgin San Joaquin valley before there was a plow or fence within it.”

(Mayfield & Margolin 34-35)

Thomas Jefferson Mayfield goes on to describe the world and towns that I inhabit and love, but in a state untouched by Manifest Destiny.

The land was carpeted with geese, cranes, and ducks, giving scarcely a place to put your human foot in without making something fly away in fear. Tall Tule reeds and marsh land stretched as far as the eye could see, Yokut peoples fashioned their houses out of the reeds and traveled by rafts and canoes made of the same substance. And drinking from those sediment and turtle filled waters were immense herds of tall 700 pound elk congregated under trees and able to stealthily disappear into the oak forests bordering the marshes.

But you know how the story goes. People came to California in droves. We found gold. Marshland, once dried, is particularly good for farming. The Central Valley of California is to this day one of the most agriculturally productive regions in the world.

That almost all sounds good. Except when you consider man’s general inclination towards nature, and how hatred of indigenous peoples wasn’t considered bigotry in 1860, it was just the norm.

It was so much so the norm in fact, that as the elk were shot, the land turned to farm soil, and the Yokut peoples killed, Thomas Jefferson Mayfield who had lived with the peoples being killed and whose homes were being destroyed, learned to keep his mouth shut, risking his own life if he spoke on behalf of the people he had lived with, and likely loved.

The untouched California Central Valley, with its birds that blacked out the sky and giant herds of elk, is something we in the modern day will never get to see.

Except, we still can get glimpses.

Did you know that there’s still Tule elk living in the California Central Valley?

Like, for real. I’ve seen them. They almost went extinct in 1870, but thanks to some aggressive conservation programs a century later, there’s estimated to still be 4,000 of them in the wild. (Thank you Wikipedia) The San Luis National Wildlife Refuge is 40 minutes South from Turlock and has an entire visitor center set up to watch the elk (and flocks of birds too!) throughout the seasons, with telescopes and informational plaques straight out of the quality of a big-city museum.

Oh and their name might tell you otherwise, but did you know that the Canadian Goose is actually native to California too?

Did you know that by the turn of the 20th century, and before people widely planted grass, they too were almost driven to extinction?

And now, Canadian Geese are so common that we almost label them pests.

But they were part of that original bird-carpeted ground.

And so were the swallows that you can find making their nests underneath the bridge to the Athletics complexes. And so were the woodpeckers that you can sometimes find up in the pinecone dropping trees around the back of Bizzini Hall. And so were the Western pond turtles that you might see if you watch the water outside of the Naraghi Hall of Science for long enough.

As antithetical as it may sound, Stanislaus State University, a college, the very symbol of modernity, has created an environment that harkens back to a time before “civilization” came and tilled the whole thing over.

So in the spirit of Thanksgiving, next time a Stan State Canadian goose honks at you, try and remember a little bit about the Yokuts that came before us, about the elk and other wildlife that we nearly lost forever, and about how when considering the present company, the Canadian Geese are the true rulers of the land.

---

Special Thanks to Professor Eric Nystrom, who not only taught me over half of this stuff in the first place, also quickly and willingly provided me with the sources we studied in his class when I reached out to him:

Mayfield, T. J., & Margolin, M. (1993). Indian Summer: A True Account of Traditional Life Among the Choinumne Indians of California’s San Joaquin Valley.

Wallace, W. J. (n.d.). Northern-valley-yokuts-state-of-california. Retrieved November 17, 2020, from https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/18109468/northern-valley-yokuts-state-of-california

The problem with telling people that you are, or want to be, a writer, is that eventually someone will call you out on it.

I was walking away from my Gender Communication class one late and slightly chilly Stan State October evening when a peer approached me.

“Hey, you want to be a writer, right?” She says to me.

“Y-yeah?” I say, nervous but intrigued.

“Are you going to do NaNoWriMo?”

A pit opened up in my stomach. She had spoken the dreaded words. I knew what they meant too, and I’m sure she could see it in my widened eyes.

“I mean,” I stammered. “Like, I wasn’t planning on it, but-”

“Well do you want to be writing buddies? I need someone to check in on me, make sure I’m writing.”

“Um. I-, uh… You know what? Yes. I’ll try it. No, wait. Yes. I’ll do it.”

And thus, my fate was sealed.

NaNoWriMo is the biggest event of the year for writing nerds. It’s short for National Novel Writing Month. The goal? 50,000 brand spanking new words written in one single month. You start with a blank page, and if everything goes well, then you have the first draft of a full novel by the end of the month.

Some people stay up until midnight to welcome the New Year, or to eagerly await the arrival of Santa Claus. Some of us are such dorks that we get home from Halloween celebrations and drink coffee and tea so that we can start writing the very second the clock tells us November has started.

50,000 words is no small amount. For reference, The Great Gatsby, The Notebook, and Fight Club are all books that clock in at roughly 50,000 words. We’re talking about writing a real, actual, no-joke novel here.

But 50,000 words is also not as impossible as you might think.

I’ve been a self-proclaimed writing nerd for a long time, but for some reason I was too afraid to try NaNoWriMo. It seemed like an impossibility to me that I could write a book in one month. But I had a peer who was more confident than me, and she needed an accountabilibuddy to keep her honest, and wanted me to come along the ride.

So I said yes.

And every week after our gender comm class we’d walk to our cars and ask each other the hard question: “Did you get your words in today?”. We’d send texts to each other when we needed encouragement or someone to lament to. (At one particular instance she texted me frantically proclaiming that she “FORGOT TO INTRODUCE THE GNOMES IN MY STORY!!!” to which I had a hearty laugh about)

And you know what? It wasn’t so hard after all.

Oh it was hard, and it took actual dedication. I had a chart with color-coded word count goals and written, I blocked Twitter and other social media from my phone, I made myself read fiction at night instead of watching YouTube. It took effort.

But it was doable.

Come the end of November 2019, I had my very own new novel, and I loved it like a child. Oh, and I had a new friend too 🙂

As I’m writing this, it’s the 9th of November 2020, and I’ve written 19,750 words for NaNo 2020. And you can bet your darn patootie that I’m going to have 50,000 words before this month is over.

I had the potential in me, I just needed someone to come and call me out on it. College (and Stan State!) is a fantastic place to find likeminded people that will challenge you to become the you that you’ve always wanted to be.

I Am a Native Turlockian.

Growing up in Turlock means that I don’t ever remember a time when Stanislaus wasn’t in my zeitgeist.

“The college” has always only referred to one single, special, place. Summer fireworks shows, high school band performances, Shakespeare in the park, bikeathon fundraisers, Pokémon Go events and more all centered around one big grass, water, bird, and student filled campus.

I Am Creative.

Just before sitting down to write this post I received an email informing me that I had been accepted into the writer’s workshop held by Penumbra, the organization that runs our local Literary Art Journal, an opportunity that was given expressly to Stanislaus students.

I performed saxophone concertos at the yearly Solo Ensemble Festival from 2010 to 2016, held at Stanislaus campus and judged by the many great local musicians the Central Valley has to offer.

I’ve seen utterly fantastic drama productions at Stanislaus’ black box and main stage theatres, from the hilarious Boeing Boeing to the perfectly articulated and culturally important Silent Sky.

I Am a Student.

I have strived to be a good student and to focus more on learning knowledge than on achieving grades (a goal which, in my experience, breeds good grades as well). And I think that as a result of that, my experience with Stanislaus’s Communications Studies department has been exemplary.

Teachers, advisors, and counselors all recognized the effort I put in and poured that effort back into me. Some of them fundamentally changed how I view the world and I am better because of it.

I Am a Son.

My lovely parents made it clear that they would support me regardless of the life path I chose post high school. And yet I still felt the drive to achieve, to make them proud not because I had to, but because I wanted to.

Stanislaus Dean’s Lists, internship opportunities, and education all paved the way and showed me how I could excel in my studies in the way parents want their children to do, all while being able to stay close to home.

I Am a Friend.

Stanislaus’s club rush and dozens of groups from AdvoCATS to International Studies programs create hundreds of avenues for finding community. In my few years studying at Stanislaus I’ve found everything from a Dungeons and Dragons group to roleplay with, a group of people across the country I’ve met and studied abroad with, and a bunch of equally nerdy people to sit around and write novels every November with.

Stanislaus metaphorically and literally opened up my eyes to the diversity and sheer number of amazing people to befriend, network, and learn from.

I Am Stan State.

As much as I’d love to puff out my chest and say that I became all of those things by myself, it’d be a blatant lie. I am who I am because of my family, friends, and college.

The people I’ve met through my studies at Stanislaus whether they be faculty, students, mentors, or friends have enriched my life and helped me become who I am today. And I’m certain that in two, five, ten, or fifty years later I won’t be able to look back and separate my college experiences with who I became in life.

I am Stan State as much as I am Nathan.

 

This post was made in cooperation with the I Am Stan State event. To hear more student stories, perspectives, and ways that CSU Stanislaus has enriched lives follow @stanadmissions on Instagram, read the other Student Blogger pages, and keep your ear to the ground to hear about more opportunities!

I was socially distancing with my friend Julie this weekend and as we were hanging out at Lulu’s (a cute local ice cream parlor, I recommend the Huckleberry Haven), lo and behold who approached but one of Julie’s roommates, a friend I hadn’t met before. We’ve all been in situations where our outings were derailed by one circumstance or another and additional persons change up the dynamic of the day, but this particular occurrence was a very positive one. Julie, her roommate and I, clicked and started talking like we had all known each other for years. Minutes turned to hours and hours turned into the better part of a full day. 

And while for me it felt like I had known both of them for years, Julie and her roommate Michelle really had known each other for that long. They were the best of friends. It wasn’t like talking to two people who simply knew each other, it was like talking to two people who had an unseen yet tangible connection, like an invisible bungee cord, a Hallmark-movie fated meeting, contagious IBS, or some other experience that binds people together.

As I made my way through the standard icebreakers, I eventually got to: “How do you two know each other?” And I learned that they had met three years ago at freshman orientation. I thought that that was so sweet, and that it was so cool that such a strong friendship had been birthed and maintained by and through college. 

The conversation continued and while we were talking about improv groups and whatever else our brains collectively spat out and found interesting, as it would have it, another member of Julie’s friend group appeared. And then another, and then another. Somehow someway I had been meeting with Julie at the exact right place and time for her entire roommate enclave to apparate to and socially-distance for a spell with us.

It was awesome, actually, like stepping into someone else’s shoes for a day and seeing the world they revolve inside of, and it helped that everyone was so nice too! Everyone was friends. Everyone had playful drama and embarrassing shared history to spill tea about and punch each other’s shoulders with mock appall as I giggled through my mask.

But the coolest thing was the pattern that quickly revealed itself as the conversation ran on. All four of these friends had met each other during the exact same initial freshman orientation. This group of people had come together one fateful freshman day, and had grown to love one another so much that they stuck together for three whole years!

Anyone that’s been quarantining for even just a few months with the same few people know how strong and how quickly a relationship can grow through facing challenges together. You learn these quirks, specialties, and deep facts about people, like how this person uses yogurt instead of mayonnaise in her tuna fish sandwiches (eww), how no matter how damp with tears your sister’s shoulder is she’ll still readily offer it for you to cry on, and how no matter how many times you tell him otherwise this person seems just plain unable to do his own dishes for some reason.

And, in some ways, your college friends fulfill a very similar niche to your quarantine partners. Going to college, and moving to college especially can be a really nerve-racking experience. But, hanging out with Julie this weekend proved that that nervous-potentially-terrifying-and-utterly-exciting energy that surrounds everyone’s first college day can be the exact sort of external challenge that will forge friendships that last a lifetime.

I won’t speak for them, of course, but just from the stories told, I could tell that Julie and her friends had been there for each other through thick and thin, and they were committed to being there for each other for a long time to come. They’d help each other study for tests in addition to hiding a body together, and would probably do both at the same time if they needed to.

Hyperbole aside, Julie is one of many people who has life-long friends from college, and in the time of uncertainty and scariness that is 2020, knowing that those friends could be out there, waiting for you to meet them, might be the encouragement you need to be able to approach college and the next phase of life with a bold face and a smile.

It is scary, and it is nerve-racking, and that’s okay! Because so many people there with you will also be scared and nervous, but also excited, and you’ll be able to join together with each other and become the absolute best of friends. Who doesn’t want a college squad to back you up in life?

 

P.S. Yes, I’m putting you on blast Julie. Yogurt in your tuna fish sandwiches? Really? It’s not even like you hate mayo, you just don’t use it in this one specific circumstance? C’mon girl.