news flash: this blog is not j-o

seriously, fellas. stop making me resort to dontbeskrrred for my bi-daily dose of washu internets banter. i mean, i didn't even cop an invite to washuscene. give me something.

tremendous

congrats guys! this team blog is more successful than Lynne Spears' parenting book and Shaquille O'Neal's rap career, combined (i would say his acting career were it not for the back-to-back tandem of "Blue Chips" and "Kazaam"). kudos to the people working so hard behind the scenes to keep it going strong everyday.

since we're getting so much buzz in the streets, we should use our pull to get a huge group of senior guys together to grow out 'staches til graduation. it could be like the playoff beard or the red sox shaved head. i also think it'd be hilarious.

1luv
johnson

johnson's intro

its your boy da'rell johnson making a debut to the spot. many of you in the internets world may alreadyknow me for my own heavy-hitting, world changing, infrequently updated (by infrequent i mean there hasn't been shit in the past 3 months) blog. but that's enough shameless self-promotion; i'll get to the point.

so we will be leaving this incredible school behind in a few short weeks. many of us will be hopping on american airlines jets with one-way tickets to the east, west, or south, returning to neither lambert airport nor this gorgeous city until 30 years from now, when our kids get waitlisted by the ivies, and history repeats itself (i, luckily enough, will have the pleasure of spending a few more years getting to know the actual city, which innocently exists beneath the domineering presence of the danforth campus).

so, the questions arise: when we look back on college in five years, what will we remember? will we still call our precious drinking and smoking buddies "friends" in ten years? will our children be amazed and impressed when we recount stories about being the inaugural facebook class? obviously, the answers to these compelling inquiries cannot be found at the moment. so we stick with the more context-appropriate "what are you doing after graduation?" or "how come we never hung out all of these years?" acknowledging the transition upon which we are about to embark, but not contemplating the gravity of post-wrighton life.

its obvious nothing can be done to stop the inevitable. or to speed it up, for that matter. we're left with two choices: to blindly thrust ourselves today in the mindset of the future and to pretend we are already the grad students, teachers, bankers and engineers we will be in mere months, or to cling to our moments, thirsting (literally!) for the next thursday night at morgan street like it won't be the same as the last 30 times we've been there. each approach has its merits; each has its follies.

i've never been a fan of suspense, so i'm going to tell you plainly that i'll opt for the latter. i don't have any emotional or sentimental reason for doing this; it just seems to be my natural inclination to live in the present. therefore, i solemnly swear that, for the next 45 days, 14 hours, and 48 minutes, i will drink like i've never drank, nerd like i've never nerded, bears den like i've never bears denned (at least not since having a legit meal plan), morgan street like i've never morgan streeted, W.I.L.D. like i've never W.I.L.D.ed, CEC (that's the engineering computer lab, for those of you sub-calculus III idiots out there) like i've never CECed, and, well, i assume you get the point. because on may 16th, the eulogy will be delievered for the sideways StL hat-wearing, slang talking, down-for-whatever Da'Rell Johnson, for better or for worse.

until then, however, you can catch me kickin it by george washington in front of the brary, trying to decide if i want to cop a bucket at kilkennys or spit karaoke at duffys, chatting up shorties, dapping and dipping spots, clowning randos, mocking herbs, crushing A.D.D. medicine and all nighters before tests (like now), wigging at W.I.L.D. and just generally being the man.

Or maybe it's the perpetual THC hangover I have everyday, pre-caffienation in Whisper's, that gets the thoughts rolling.

Walking through the deserted campus this morning, I couldn't help but to think just how beautiful our campus is - but the mulch smelled like shit, so the thought was fleeting.

The Experiment Begins

Maybe it's just the amphetamine salts that do it. Or maybe it's legitimate angst about the post grad world. Whatever the reason, I've been feeling a lot of conflicting emotions about the soon-to-come ending of my collegiate existence. All year I've vowed to write about my experiences, mainly as a mechanism for which to remember this time in my life. Prescient perhaps. Or trite. Doesn't really matter at this point since I haven't done it. But alas, by my count, this year's seniors will be spending roughly 50 more days at Wash.U. One more in March, 30 in April, 15 before graduation and probably a handful of days after. And so I figured we could all use this very 21st century medium to communicate our inner most thoughts--humorous, sad, analytical, sociological, it's all up to you. There are 50 days left and still lots to be said before we embark on the next phase. Wash.U. has sometimes been described as devoid of an ethos and factionalized. Hence, I've sought out people from varying schools, majors, and backgrounds to chime in on the impending ending to it all. It's your call on what to do next. Guidelines are virtually without limit. Use it as a place to converse about your time in the Lou, to mock elements of this institution and its constituents, and to generally banter about what's going to happen when these 50 days invariably come to a screeching halt. Use class, be clever, and blog away.