Two posts in two days. I'm on a roll here.
I decided this afternoon that today is a fresh start. Or maybe a "clean" would be a better adjective than "fresh." Not in any sort of dramatic, life-changing, gigantic sort of way. Just small. I took a shower. I organized my desk. I sorted some old papers into folders. I rearranged my bulletin board to have space for next semester's schedules. I cleaned out my email inbox and moved around some files in my computer to make it a little neater. I talked to my advisor about future courses and travel plans (actually, that was yesterday), found out about some things going on this weekend and next, made some phone calls, finally got to deliver some Christmas presents entrusted to me by a friend studying abroad, and did my readings for class tomorrow. Now I'm sitting here listening to instrumental soundtracks, drinking a cup of tea, and pondering what to do for my final creative project for my class.
For supposedly having a more relaxed schedule, interim has kept me surprisingly busy. To be honest, I'm tired. I have been all day. With people around all the time, sometimes into the night, I get tired. Even so, there are good things going on around me. Good friends, good conversations, good classes. I'm glad for those. Living in constant community is tiring, sometimes stressful, often busying. And it's good, even though I don't always feel like it is. It's challenging me to grow and teaching me how to live well with other people.
Today is a fresh start. I'm not beginning a new semester or moving to a new place or choosing a new major. I'm just starting fresh.
For now, that's good enough for me.
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New hagah post: A Map and Some Directions (miscellanea)
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Tuesday, January 21, 2014
Multae Linguae
It's January! As a matter of fact, it's been January for about three weeks now. Which really means I haven't done any posting here yet this year. I thought it was about time I changed that, although I don't really want to post here just for the sake of posting here; that is, I don't like to say anything if I don't have anything to say. This is possibly why I have trouble making small talk. But that's another tangent entirely.
Granted, I don't have much to say at the time being -- you can probably expect a little more coming once I finish up my interim class on creativity and I talk about that -- but I have one little thing to say. It actually happened a while ago, but when I looked back I discovered there's no record of it here. So here you go, blog. An update on my life.
Remember this? The part where I said I wasn't going to be a Greek major, and then noted that I'd likely be eating my words a few months from then?
Yeah, that happened.
I am now officially unofficially (that is, have updated my program but have yet to declare) a Writing and Greek major double major with a Computer Science minor. And sorry, Plato, but if I can get away with getting my credits from tragedy and epic poetry, I won't be spending a lot of time with you. I'm confused enough when I read you in my first language.
That's a funny thought -- my first language. I'm nowhere near fluent, but to an extent, I'm becoming bilingual. Trilingual if I count Latin, but I've already lost enough of it to Greek that I don't really count it any more. (I guess that makes it ironic that this post title is Latin, doesn't it?) I can't speak my second language very much, since none of its native speakers exist any more, but the fact remains that I can speak some of it. I can read some of it. I do so on a semi-regular basis. I asked for a book in it for Christmas, and I read it nearly every week (even if it is while someone else is reading the English aloud).
I'd like to learn another language, one that's still alive and being spoken and written in regularly today. I don't know when that will happen, because one new language is keeping me busy enough now. I'll add it to my imaginary list of things I'd like to do in the future, and we'll see what happens.
Granted, I don't have much to say at the time being -- you can probably expect a little more coming once I finish up my interim class on creativity and I talk about that -- but I have one little thing to say. It actually happened a while ago, but when I looked back I discovered there's no record of it here. So here you go, blog. An update on my life.
Remember this? The part where I said I wasn't going to be a Greek major, and then noted that I'd likely be eating my words a few months from then?
Yeah, that happened.
I am now officially unofficially (that is, have updated my program but have yet to declare) a Writing and Greek major double major with a Computer Science minor. And sorry, Plato, but if I can get away with getting my credits from tragedy and epic poetry, I won't be spending a lot of time with you. I'm confused enough when I read you in my first language.
That's a funny thought -- my first language. I'm nowhere near fluent, but to an extent, I'm becoming bilingual. Trilingual if I count Latin, but I've already lost enough of it to Greek that I don't really count it any more. (I guess that makes it ironic that this post title is Latin, doesn't it?) I can't speak my second language very much, since none of its native speakers exist any more, but the fact remains that I can speak some of it. I can read some of it. I do so on a semi-regular basis. I asked for a book in it for Christmas, and I read it nearly every week (even if it is while someone else is reading the English aloud).
I'd like to learn another language, one that's still alive and being spoken and written in regularly today. I don't know when that will happen, because one new language is keeping me busy enough now. I'll add it to my imaginary list of things I'd like to do in the future, and we'll see what happens.
Friday, December 27, 2013
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Dichotomy
Warning: prepare for rambling. Finals week does that to you.
I've decided that the complete lack of blog posts in November proves that my decision to refrain from tackling NaNoWriMo this year was the correct one. November is crazy enough by itself without attempting to cram fifty thousand extra words into it. Don't get me wrong -- I enjoyed NaNo while I did it and even wrote a whole post on why I did it last year. It just took me that year to learn that it's okay to say "no" sometimes. I still wrote a bit at the beginning of November, although I didn't even try for a novel. Given all the crazy projects I was working on for the past month, though, I don't regret it.
Classes are over for the semester, and I'm a paper, a project showcase, and three finals away from wrapping things up. Leading up to this week has been an odd sort of feeling. I've been both extremely excited for the end of the semester and extremely sad that it's coming. I suppose "bittersweet" would be an appropriate word here, except that seems to imply some sort of connection between the bitter- and sweetness. It's odd because there isn't. There's the strong sense of bitter and the strong sense of sweet, and there's very clearly no connection between them.
To be specific, I have a few classes I really don't want to end and one that I really do. (There's also one I'm pretty neutral about, but that's neither here nor there, as it were.) There's also the straight-up odd sense of "it's finals week! Now I can finally relax from all the busy craziness!" (I blame all the projects for the-class-which-will-not-be-named, personally.) I mean, I have plenty of work to do, but the break from routine schedule is nice. I'm sure this is more of a typical feeling than I make it out to be, but who knows.
Here's the real point of this post, I guess: I'm still here. I really just wanted to post something on this blog so that I remind myself to keep it going. In the midst of all the busyness and crazy, life goes on.
So does finals week, for that matter. But we'll get there.
It's just a matter of time.
I've decided that the complete lack of blog posts in November proves that my decision to refrain from tackling NaNoWriMo this year was the correct one. November is crazy enough by itself without attempting to cram fifty thousand extra words into it. Don't get me wrong -- I enjoyed NaNo while I did it and even wrote a whole post on why I did it last year. It just took me that year to learn that it's okay to say "no" sometimes. I still wrote a bit at the beginning of November, although I didn't even try for a novel. Given all the crazy projects I was working on for the past month, though, I don't regret it.
Classes are over for the semester, and I'm a paper, a project showcase, and three finals away from wrapping things up. Leading up to this week has been an odd sort of feeling. I've been both extremely excited for the end of the semester and extremely sad that it's coming. I suppose "bittersweet" would be an appropriate word here, except that seems to imply some sort of connection between the bitter- and sweetness. It's odd because there isn't. There's the strong sense of bitter and the strong sense of sweet, and there's very clearly no connection between them.
To be specific, I have a few classes I really don't want to end and one that I really do. (There's also one I'm pretty neutral about, but that's neither here nor there, as it were.) There's also the straight-up odd sense of "it's finals week! Now I can finally relax from all the busy craziness!" (I blame all the projects for the-class-which-will-not-be-named, personally.) I mean, I have plenty of work to do, but the break from routine schedule is nice. I'm sure this is more of a typical feeling than I make it out to be, but who knows.
Here's the real point of this post, I guess: I'm still here. I really just wanted to post something on this blog so that I remind myself to keep it going. In the midst of all the busyness and crazy, life goes on.
So does finals week, for that matter. But we'll get there.
It's just a matter of time.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
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