Hey Dad

I just got back from biking either 10 km or 10 miles while watching CNN in closed captions. Earlier I talked with Alex on the room phone for about a half hour. Then I read the reading for English, and the book actually held my interest. For some reason I'm depressed from the period right after classes until I've tackled a bit of my homework. Things are much better after that. I actually feel great right now, and I may make the biking machine (it's like those sitdown bikes only with support beams instead of wheels) part of my routine. It helps just getting out and doing something. The people may suck here, but it sure is a great campus.

Alex has Yom Kippur on the weekend of the 26th, when I was planning on coming home. Right now I feel like I can make it to the weekend after, easy. I signed up for this community service thing with my floor for next weekend, so the first weekend in October is probably the earliest I can make it unless things get so bad that I absolutely need to come home. My roommate's been out all night, and having the room to myself for a night has given my a little time to get accustomed to it as "home." The phone card didn't come yet, and when Mike called tonight about dinner my minutes dipped below 100, so I'm gonna hold off calling unless I have another panic attack.

I've been looking into transfer options just to keep that door open in case I need to. But for the first time in a long time, I feel like there's light at the end of the tunnel. Will I be depressed tomorrow after a grueling calc session? Probably. But I think this will change as I go from fearing whether or not I'll be able to have fun once I get back to the room to taking comfort in the knowledge that I'll be able to have fun once I get back to the room.

One thing I've realized about RIT is you've got to work to make your own fun. I'm thinking about checking to gauge interest in a movie-watching club, and talk to the administration about getting access to a classroom with a TV and DVD player.

The one thing that sucks is that when I am having a shitty day, I don't have you guys to turn to for a little face to face. Today I talked with Alex over the phone and Gretchen and ******* online and that helped me a good deal. Sometimes hearing the same shit from friends does things that hearing from your parents cannot.

All in all, I'm still not sure this is the right place for me or whether it's taking me where I want to go. But I've come to the point where I'm not ready to throw away all the work I've put in to get to this point just because I'm having some adjustment issue.

So if I don't talk to you tomorrow, pass on the message to Mom that I love you guys. I'll call up North come Friday or Saturday.

Adam