Ilse and Lists

Anyone out there who knows me should be aware of the fact that I keep a number of lists. I feel they help me organize my thoughts by taking out all that is unnecessary to memorize at that specific point in time – for instance, I throroughly enjoy writing up To Do Lists and then crossing off all that is on there. My two favorite lists, though, are my To Read List and my To Watch List. As the names might suggest, the former is a list of all works of literature and non-fiction I have yet to read. At the moment it is highly populated by English Literary Classics but if you have a suggestion I am very much willing to put it on there, it just may take me a few years before I get round to reading it as I am currently trying to put on there all the books all my RA instructors have ever recommended to me, which is a task of significant magnitude as it means I have to sort through three-and-a-half semesters of class notes. The latter is a list of all significant films. Perhaps I should also put a few tv series on there but as I am still in the process of working my way through all CSI:Miami episodes and after that wish to catch up on CSI:NY, Vampire Diaries, White Collar, Chuck, Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother, I feel I have my work cut out for me. Most of the films on the list are found in the IMDb Top 250 or have been recommended to me before, though I also at times hear films mentioned not to me but to others and then still wish to see them, so I put them on the list and get round to seeing them probably 10 years from now. Either way, all of this is in a massive Excel-document that also holds lists of Things To Do Before I Die (Since I merged it with Places I Want To Visit Before I Die it consists mostly of locations, though it also has activities like 'eating blowfish' and 'bungeejumping' on there), Classes To Take Before I Graduate (Of course, there are far more than I could ever have time for) and Things To Do Before The End of the Semester.

Now, it's the last one that worries me. Whenever I observe the growth of the list (it seems to perform that feat all by itself) I feel somewhat anxious and fear that I will still be working when the semester is over. Strangely enough, I feel like that every semester and every time I still manage to pull it off. Of course, pulling that off also requires me to have total disregard for the state of my room (which is why I feel incredibly reluctant to invite my parents over in the last few weeks of the semester) and the weather outside and anything else that may distract me. The result is then a forest's worth of essays, more exam results than the total of all exams in the last three years of high school and a severe vitamin D deficiency. And you know what? I wouldn't change it for the world. After all, I chose courses I am interested in. Writing papers is then no longer a massive task, but something of an enjoyable effort, like a sport, though of course it requires an entirely different sort of effort. Exams – yes, well, no one likes exams but most people enjoy getting results back, except for when these aren't as expected.

As for the growth of the list, I tackled a few interesting assignments last week and intend to do a few more this week. Perhaps I will still be able to completely empty the list before the end of the semester. If not – well, I guess I'll then just drag my books and paper and pens and markers and pencils outside and study there. What else is spring for?

Ilse is a second year social science student with an interest in law and law enforcement with an interest in many different sorts of media.