Aug 17.

8/17/2025 8:25. Correspondence 2

Day two. Dude. I opened my laptop to start writing this and instantly got distracted. I fell into a rabbit hole that dropped me in front of this sick open-source website builder. That's exactly what I was looking for when making this. Hey, no offense, Google, but I don't love your name all over everything. If you are reading this anywhere near the date above, be on the lookout for a major website shift. It should be the same URL, though. If you are in the future and see a website not associated with Google at all, enjoy the new open-source anti-capitalist website core.

Anyway, what I was going to say before being so distracted was: Ahem

Day two. I would describe it as a good day. A day full of faces. Lots of kind new ones and familiar old ones. A nice mix. Let me start by describing my night. Bad. I just could not relax. Call it change or anxiety or whatever else, but I could not for the life of me get to sleep. By the time my alarm went off, I wasn't even groggy or sluggish. I don't think I ever sank to sleepyland enough to be. I sat up and looked around my room. Honestly, incredibly cozy and comforting. I was afraid I was going to wake up confused and sad, but I had a fantastic morning. moseyed to the shower, brushed my teeth, dressed myself all nice, then had a wonderful cup of tea. It warmed my soul and felt like a slice of home. Guess what else, haters? I brushed my hair. Yeah, you heard me right. I picked up the brush in my toiletry cubbies and pulled it through my hair. It is crazy how much more you remember to do when everything you need to do is in one room. Granted, I am saying this on day two, full of motivation and hope. On those days of darkness and misery, I might see thorns on the brush handle. 

After my high of a morning, I was brought down a tad by an isolating brunch. It was an honors dorm welcome event where we went down to the lobby, and they had catering there. The elevator doors opened to the first floor, and it was just suffocatingly crowded. I wanted to snap a pic, but I also felt weird pointing a camera at strangers. I made my way to the back of the line and waited in crowded isolation. Conversations vibrated all around me. I made my way to the front of the line and grabbed a plate, tossed some potatoes, and a slice of French toast. Made my way out of the strangle of the crowd and found an empty table outside. Everyone else looked like they had found their people. I ate and read Batman/Superman: Worlds' Finest on my phone, although I barely retained the cell-shaded panels. All I could think about was "how would the people around me react if they knew I was sitting here alone reading comics?". I didn't find out the answer. Finished my food rather quickly and made my way back into the fray. The comfort of my room had left me here, and I felt out of place. It's in a crowd where you often feel most alone. 

"Hey, did you go to Sketch?" "What?" I said. "The theater festival, you did the two-person show, right?" said a stranger stepping out of the crowd towards me. All the anxiety and isolation retreated to their dark and knarled caves in an instant. I'm still unsure about using names. I probably shouldn't if I haven't asked. I definitely shouldn't. So I will call her Judy. We had a wonderful talk and bonded in the awkward isolation we felt here, in turn making a pet out of the albatross around our necks. A wonderful paradox. Exchanging Instagrams, I also ended up running into an old friend from the housing portal. I ended up messaging that old friend, named here as Lavendor, and he invited me to eat lunch with a larger group that had gotten together. It was frankly very nice, and I met a lot of wonderful people. too many to "name" here, but I do want to highlight one exchange. We were all talking about likes and interests and summer, and I told the few around me that after seeing Superman 2025, I got super (unintentional) into DC comics. Carter (not actual name) immediately went "oh my god, have you read the absolute universe". Frankly, a magical moment being an absolute lover and advocate of the absolute universe myself. A good lunch.

Early in the day, I reached out to some old friends from my home high school. My old robotics pals. I texted asking what they were up to and if they were down to trade room tours. A few hours later, we hammered out the details, and I was on my way, choosing an absolute doozy of a path out of ignorance. After about 20 minutes of a grueling walk that seemed to be entirely uphill, I made it to their dorm. Nice place. Roomy. Reminiscent of a dorm shared between 4 guys. After chatting up a bit, they asked to see my dorm. Now knowing the best route, it was a fairly easy 10-minute walk. I showed them around my space. They seemed to like it. We all ended up sitting around talking for about an hour and a half. Nice seeing familiar faces. We moved my car and went to dinner all together. 

After quickly eating, I rushed off to meet with my peer mentor and fellow mentee. Honestly, absolutely great people. We all immediately clicked, so it seemed. We chatted about majors and interests and family and dreams and hobbies, and all shared so many similarities. She walked us to all our buildings, and if we could get inside, even our classrooms. Most were locked. The last building we stopped at was the School of Journalism. We tried the door, and one was unlocked, so like we had been doing, we went inside to find the classrooms. When we got to my last class, we were met with someone vacuuming inside. We peered in, and he noticed us. "What are you guys doing?" he asked in a stern voice. "Trying to find our classes," we responded meekly. "How did you get in?" He asked in a stern voice. "The door was unlocked," we responded meekly. "Thanks for letting me know". We briskly walked away. My peer mentor joked as we left the building: "First day here and you guys are already breaking and entering". My peer mentor walked me back to the honors dorms, and we had a very good political conversation as we did. She also connected me with someone who's in Garnet Media. Yipee! 

There were dogs out there. I don't even have a good story to tell about it. But there was an event this afternoon, thrown by what I think is a Baptist college organization called Popsicles and Puppies. I met up with Lavender and some other new faces, and we walked there together. It was nice, but a tad too crowded. It just made miss Goosey all the more. I only mention it because I snapped a great pic of a very lovely dog. see below.

Well, I've been typing for over an hour now, should probably wrap up. I'm so curious how this will evolve. Nights when I have long papers to write, it will be a struggle to find the motivation to write at all. But I suppose there is always the next day. 

Until tomorrow,

Calvin Landreth 

P.S. Sorry for the improper date stamp on the photos in yesterday's correspondence. didn't realize the date was wrong until today.