Character

There's a lot on my mind these days, as I am organizing my budget for the next year. I'm currently in denial that I have preliminary exams during orientation. I'm not thrilled that I'll be tested on ethnomusicology, which I've never studied. I would like to pass my aural exam, but I know I really need to work on my ear training so I had thought about taking another class to help me in that area.

I had a great conversation with Jeff about politics, and hopefully I'll get all those thoughts in order soon. It was good to get feedback about my last post. It's so unfortunate that students' only options for higher education are either to take on a huge amount of debt in student loans, or to have a lot of help from their family. Very few can get enough scholarship to pay their own way through school. Graduate students normally don't get as much scholarship money, either.

But for whatever reason (I think looking at Emma's photos) I have been obsessed with getting a new camera. The screen of my old Canon Powershot cracked when I dropped it in Aspen in '09, but it's still a good camera. I just wish I could take better quality photos with a bit more zoom and manual controls. Since my old camera is still a great point and shoot, I thought I could get a more professional level camera. I thought about getting a Micro 4/3 camera but I don't really want to deal with interchangeable lenses now. Not only does multiple lenses make carrying the camera around more of a hassle, each lens is expensive.

What I decided on was a Nikon Coolpix P7100. It has a sensor that is twice as big as the sensor in a normal compact point and shoot. The two things that set it apart from other cameras in it's class are the longer 7.1x zoom and all the control dials on the camera which allow for quick adjustments. I dream of taking photos of cool places I've been and projecting them on a big screen so I can try to relive those moments. That may be too much to ask of this camera, but I can definitely shoot great quality 8"x10" prints.

The reason I mention this is that I'm not sure I've ever wanted something like this that I couldn't have within a reasonable time period. If I wanted things I could ask for them for Christmas or my birthday. The things that I buy myself are generally not prohibitively expensive and I have never had the responsibilities that I do now. I have never had to save this much of my own money to get something that I wanted. If I'm smart, I'll save any and all money that I make this year for rent next year. I might not have the extra money to buy myself this camera for another year. Which is a long time to wait.

Whenever I think about it (which is daily) my responsible side takes on the tone of Calvin's (C&H) dad: "It builds character." Wanting something so badly and then working hard for it will make it so much more rewarding when I finally can afford to buy it. It's strange that I haven't really felt that kind of motivation before.