16 December 2008
fin
As of an hour ago I'm done with this semester. YAY!
Now I've got three days of r&r at school before re-entering the world de la familia... and all that brings.
It rained the entire day yesterday, and today was bitingly cold and cloudy. I must admit, I'm not a fan of winter anymore. Maybe I've just been in the Southwest for too long. What to do come May?! Anyway, the sun broke through the clouds today long enough to get out my camera. This tree outside my window is totally captivating right now.
11 December 2008
stirring
Whew. Its Wednesday night (ok, its 12:33am, so technically Thursday morning) and in the last four days I have written 27 pages. All of those pages have been/will be turned in tomorrow and Friday, along with my 15-page thesis chapter that was written two weeks ago. Then its the weekend and I write 8 more pages due Monday and study for a final exam on Tuesday... and then I'm DONE with school for a month. I think having to start thesis this semester has made the process of producing copious amounts of writing much less difficult. I need seven pages, okay, here's a detailed outline and then seven pages. In five hours. The stress of producing material has been eliminated. Having to wrap my head around a self-selected topic that could fill (and will fill) 70+ pages makes writing a 7-page paper seem like a drop in the bucket.
This final week has been very systematic and logical. It was like - okay, so on Monday I'll write the paper due Wednesday, on Tuesday I'll write the paper due Friday, on Wednesday I'll write the book reports due Thursday, on Thursday I'll edit thesis due Friday... there was no excess, no panic, not even (extra) coffee... just headphones and a water bottle. And almost all the writing is done. Huzzzah.
I'm looking forward to finally resting on Tuesday night and spending three days just chilling out at school, enjoying the company of my friends and doing a bit of reading for thesis without worry of due dates or deadlines. Two of my best friends are graduating this semester and I don't know when I'll see them again... probably not for a few months, at least.
Weird, it was my last fall season as a student for a while. Academically, this semester has been only average (regarding interest level in my courses), and there's been more social drama than necessary, including a falling out with a good friend. BUT... I'm happier than I've ever been in my life, so that's good.
Hannah and me, Thanksgiving.
07 December 2008
soulful
I'm a big fan of Steve Pavlina. He got me to wake up at 6:30 every morning first semester of junior year, and while I can see how some people dismiss a lot of what he writes because it seems too "out there", if you actually read it and think about it his articles make a lot of sense. His life story is pretty amazing and whenever I spend half an hour reading stuff on his site I feel much better and happier about life.
I found this yesterday: Soulful Relationships. I actually think I do this quite a bit in my life, but I'm going to embrace it wholeheartedly for the next two weeks and see what, if anything, happens or changes.
I especially love the core of this idea:
"Everyone you meet in your life - even total strangers - is already intimately connected to you. The idea that we are all separate and distinct beings is nothing but an illusion. We are all parts of a larger whole, like individual cells in a body."