The Longest Month

During the summer of 2002 I spent 5 weeks at Army ROTC National Advanced Leadership Camp in Fort Lewis, Washington. Since then, I was almost certain that would remain the longest month of my life.

I was wrong. September 2003 has been the longest month of my life. I can hardly believe my first on-grounds interview was only four weeks ago. The interviewing process has been absolutely ubiquitous, to the point that I hardly remember life without it.

I'm saving all the nitty gritty details for the day after I receive and accept a summer job offer. At that point, I hope to lift this burden from my shoulders and share it, more for my own relief than any notion of helping future 2Ls (though that's an added bonus).

Band of Brothers was very good, though there's no question in my mind that the HBO mini-series is better. Ambrose wrote a touching tribute, the mini-series became an epic lesson about war, humanity, and, of course, brotherhood.

O Pioneers! was very touching and beautifully written, and it was interesting to note the similarities to Pearl Buck's Good Earth, especially the use of the land itself as a main character around which the story revolves. I think I liked Cather's character study in My Antonia better; she almost had too many characters to deal with in O Pioneers!, and though she doesn't neglect any of them, none gets the stellar treatment that Antonia and Jim receive.

Now I'm plowing through Doctorow's Ragtime, which stirs strong responses in most who see me reading it. Within 5 minutes I heard "I hate that book, I hate Doctorow" and "Fantastic book, though I'd already seen the musical and kept singing the songs while reading it."

Well I had previously tried reading Billy Bathgate, and disliked it so much I gave the book away. So this is Doctorow's last chance. And so far, it's not that bad. I'm still trying to piece together the themes, which are easy to lose in his somewhat plotless vignettes, but at the worst it's an easy and humorous read that takes my mind off interviewing.

I'll be up in D.C. for the rest of the week doing callbacks, but hopefully I'll return with good news.