Zen and the Art of Blogging

Like many students entering Mudd, I've mostly written for AP tests. And as you may or may not know, those essays are highly guided - we're given topics from which we may not stray. This fact is forcing me to give myself a theme for writing the present and future posts. I plan on focusing primarily on the social workings of Mudd at first, until I feel experienced enough to begin commenting on the academic (at least past the half-semester).

I would like to focus this post on the issue of the dorms. The eight dormitories are generally divided into two classes: the inner dorms (named after the cardinal directions) and the outer dorms (Linde, Case, Atwood, Sontag). The inner dorms possess stronger characters. The average Eastie is Geekier, the average Southie is quieter, the average Westie is more pyromaniacal, and the average Norfie is more athletic. However, be careful to note that I said that I referred to the average person. As we were cautioned during orientation, assuming these generalities to be true in all cases is both offensive and incorrect. Now, the outer dorms may not be as colorful as the inner dorms, but they generally have better rooms. For example, Atwood (my dorm, the best of all dorms - it contains three floors), has really nicely furnished suites. And the suites' personalities are actually pretty well unified (for example, my suite is fairly "South," although I'm trying to add some "East"). However, many other suites I would classify as "North." These clashes in suite makeup make it difficult for a single unified culture to develop. But as I mentioned, one merely needs to stay within a single suite in Atwood to find a strong character (making it a synthesis of sorts of the two classes). As my father is fond of saying, "everywhere you live has its pros and cons." And that aphorism is no less true here at Mudd. Inner dorms have their unity, outer dorms have their diversity. Inner dorms have their proximity to academic building, outer dorms have suite couches (caution: pun). And Atwood has the best of everything. And three floors.