"This is What Life's About, Seriously, This is What Life's About."

Thanks to Professor Wapner for the title of this post. I interviewed him yesterday. Really, really interesting guy. I feel like you learn something from every person you interview and I learned a lot from Professor Wapner. He's the Associate Professor and Director of the Global Environmental Politics program at AU and I interviewed him for my Advanced Reporting profile (FINALLY, someone would talk to me). 

I came across an interesting predicament in my search for an interviewee though. I arrived at his office obnoxiously early (1:50 for a 2:00 interview) because I'm compulsive like that, but good thing. A different man answered the door and informed me that Prof. Wapner would be taking his office in the library. Awesome, less pressure, good atmosphere, one problem... I don't know what Prof. Wapner looks like. So here's a question for you: How do you approach someone you've never met and only are able to recognize from a photo you saw on the SIS web site without being pinned as an interview stalker? Second problem, he's with a student, and theres a line of students behind this one. GAH. I freaked because not only do I ALWAYS get nervous for interviews, even if it's nothing, but this interview has been the hardest to get by far. I NEED this interview. So, I walked into the bathroom and gave myself a pep talk, walked back into the MudBox and introduced myself. I got in line with the rest of the students :), BUT I GOT THE INTERVIEW, which makes me a happy camper as my mother would say, even though I hate camping, and I'm never happy while doing it. 

So update time. Only two days until I'm on a train New Jersey bound and I cannot wait. I took my last midterm last night which wasn't as bad as it should have been seeing that I didn't study half as much as I would have had I had the time... (that's a lot of haves, sorry). I texted my parents, my brother, and my sister last night to tell them how excited I am that I'll be seeing them soon and it was great to hear from them. I'm currently in the Rockville Library jamming out to Jack Johnson and searching for a lead for this profile... no luck yet. My only assignment for the next 2 days is to make a new package for the post cards I designed two weeks ago. Which means another trip to the art supply store for Natalie, which means... it'll be windy because I'm buying matt board.  But then American Idol and Lie to Me are on which are the perfect television shows to top off a day off. Prof. Wapner said he doesn't watch TV yesterday and I instantly felt like a moron. I like TV... and you're right, TV is stupid. 

I got a letter from myself yesterday. That sounds weird, but last year I took a creative writing ckass with Professor Noble. She's great. If you have any interest in writing you should take a class with her. On the day of our final she gave us each a sheet of paper and told us to write a letter to us, 6 months from now. Mine was more like a list of to-do's more than a letter. It was a "here's where you should be, so kick your butt in gear" note. Quite profound if I do say so myself. 

Well this post is quite lengthy so I'll end it here, but leave you with something Professor Wapner said. One of the many interesting points he made. He said, "There are so many people who need to be helped out of poverty, it's somewhat our responsibility to do that, but at the same time, we are ushering these people into consumptive lifestyles that they can't handle. So I think we have to reduce our consumptive habits in this country and in the north in general, and recognize that this has to be a part of the larger sustainability trajectory."

<3.