Stages of Grief While Scheduling

Thanksgiving break is upon us and with that brings the end of the semester scheduling rush.

My face after this semester

As of today, everybody has had their scheduling window, although there is still time to play around with yours if you're not happy (or if you have an 8am, RIP). If you're anything like me, you saw the date you were given to schedule and immediately committed to staying up until midnight to camp out on LionPath in order to get the classes you wanted.

LionPath: the lesser known 8th circle of Hell

In an effort to retrace the horror that is scheduling night, I give you the Five Stages of Grief While Scheduling.

Stage 1: Anticipation, 11PM EST

In this stage, you're lurking on Schedule Builder glaring at the 8AM's you could potentially need to take if the good time slots for your classes fill up too fast. You hold your coffee in your hand and wait, not trusting anybody around you who is also on their laptop

Stage 2: Frustration, 11:40PM EST

You start to frown as Schedule Builder is loading slower than a fly walking through molasses. You realize the coffee is not helping your skyrocketing blood pressure, but you drink it anyway. You hit the refresh button again

Stage 2a: EXTREME FRUSTRATION, 11:53PM EST

SCHEDULE BUILDER AND LIONPATH CAN BOTH GO CRAWL BACK INTO THE HOLE FROM WHENCE THEY CAME. NOTHING IS LOADING. ALL SITES ARE CRASHING. ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE.

Stage 2b: Calm before the storm, 11:57PM EST

Schedule Builder is beginning to be a bit more cooperative. You still want to scream but at least you aren't getting the error message anymore

Stage 3: AAAAAAAAAAH, 12:00AM EST

THE GATES ARE OPEN. YOU RUSH TO IMPORT YOUR SCHEDULE TO LIONPATH AND REGISTER, BUT SCHEDULE BUILDER CRASHES. IT'S LIKE THAT EPISODE OF SPONGEBOB WHERE GARY IS A RACING SNAIL.

COME ON SCHEDULE BUILDER, IT'S A RACE

YOU BEGIN TO SWEAT AS YOUR SCHEDULE FINALLY IMPORTS. YOU CRY REAL TEARS WHEN YOU SEE THAT YOU HAVE BEEN WAITLISTED.

Stage 4: Denial, 12:06AM EST

You frantically try to rearrange your schedule, losing hope as all the good slots are taken. In one last effort you return to Schedule Builder and it crashes again. You hold your head in your hands and

Stage 5: Acceptance of your fate, 12:23AM EST

You have exhausted all rearranging resources. You take a long last look at your schedule and think to yourself, "Self, it'll be okay, I scheduled a break time for a nap, we'll get through this semester together". You log out of LionPath saying a few choice words under your breath, close your laptop, and go to bed ready to roll out of bed tomorrow.

All in all, scheduling is not difficult, but with the increased load on the LionPath servers, it makes you (read me) want to tear your hair out when the website won't load.

For this reason I give the scheduling experience 3 tired college students out of 10. I think if there's one thing PSU IT should work on, it should be updating or just overhauling that god-forsaken site.

I hope you all had a better time scheduling than I did, got all the classes that you wanted, and NO 8 AM'S! Until next week!

Pictures in order of appearance

Will Kimeria

Penn State 

Gifsoup

Thanksgiving THON Hype!

Did you know we're only 4 days until 100 days til THON?!

Do you know why you should be excited about that?!

If not, boy do I have a post for you! This week I'll be chronicling the interesting history behind THON, and I'll also give you a little insight about what it's like to audition for it!

One of the first things you need to know is the real name for this event: The Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon. It's quite a mouthful, and what with us all being lazy college students, over the years that name has been shortened and it is now affectionately referred to as THON.

Now you may ask, 'What exactly is THON?' and in order to answer that, I must take you back to the beginning.

This whole shebang began way back in 1973 by PSU's Interfraternity Council (IFC) as a dance competition with the idea to raise money for charity, and to give the students something to look forward to in the grind that comes with finally being in the month of February. I guess they went hard or went home in 1973, because they started right off the bat with a 30 hour marathon and raised over $2,000! That's a lot considering there were only 78 participants!

The event kept expanding exponentially with more dancers and more money coming in year after year, with a combined total of over $137 MILLION donated to the Four Diamonds fund in order to cure pediatric cancer.

THON is the largest student run philanthropic event, and is also the largest and longest dance marathon of its time clocking in at 46 hours. The dancers are extremely crazy and committed people because they pledge to stay awake and stay standing for the whole time!

There's a lot more interesting info that I could give you, but if I've got you hooked, I strongly encourage you to visit the THON website if you want to learn more about this incredible event.

So far I haven't been exposed to many THON related undertakings, but last Sunday I had the opportunity to audition to perform on the main stage at the event! I'm a part of an all brass ensemble on campus called ROAR. It's a relatively new group, but we're ambitious and what better way to get exposure than playing to hype up 700+ tired dancer and all their supporters at the BJC?!

Anyway, auditions to perform happen in 15 minute chunks, which is pretty nerve wracking considering how much time and effort we spent putting into our performance. We chose to play an arrangement of a little diddy called Atchafalaya for the judges, which are really just a bunch of other students helping to organize this whole shebang. It was a really efficient and smoothly run operation; we went in, did our thing and introduced ourselves, and then went on our merry way.

THON is such an iconic piece of Penn State's culture, and even just having the opportunity to be a part of that still feels like such a privilege.

For that reason, I'd give this whole experience so far 10 smiling children out of 10.