Welcome Back to the Blogosphere

Greetings! It's been a while. Sorry about that. School and life and everything just seems to overwhelm me right around February, which means until about May I never feel as though I am getting anything done. It was a crazy busy semester--I qualified for (and competed at) Nationals for Speech IEs, went through training to become a Writing Center tutor, did an intensive Fulbright undergrad summer program application in under two weeks, took some insanely difficult--but supremely interesting--classes, and somehow managed to survive it all. Wow.

I'm home for the summer, and now I am fully realizing what all I've accomplished in the past two years. I'm a junior in college--I'm halfway done with my undergraduate life. This baffles me. I feel like only yesterday I was moving into my freshman dorm, excited and terrified to be "out on my own." I remember the rough time I had adjusting to life at CC--not academically, but socially--and feeling so alone until I joined a beautiful, brilliant group of women. I've applied for so many things, been rejected from some, wait-listed from more, and accepted to others. Sure, it's disappointing when you find out you were a quarter-finalist to go to the UK for five weeks completely paid for, but in the grand scheme of things, I'm beginning to learn that everything will work out in the end the way it is supposed to. For instance, if I did get the RA job last spring, I would not have applied for a tutoring position with the Writing Center this past fall, which actually suits me much better, given my plans to teach. I'm definitely going for a more glass-half-full kind of perspective anymore. I mean, so much is beyond my personal control, so why should I get really upset when something doesn't work out just how I want it. It all comes down to karma--if I put good out into the universe, the universe will send good right on back.

That being said, I am instating the blog once more. I hope that this year I will use it for reflections, comic relief, catharsis, and whatever else it ends up becoming. I'm going to let this beast become what it may.

I'm ready for a new adventure.

Holy Moly, Batman!

The last three and a half weeks of my life have rushed past in a blur. I can hardly believe how much has happened in the month I've been back at school.

Today I finished my first block of my sophomore year. It was absolutely superb--I mean, what could be a better way to start your year than taking Introduction to Shakespeare? As an English major, absolutely nothing. This choice proved to be a wonderful one. As I mentioned in my last post, I'd already read two of the plays (Hamlet and Henry IV, Part I), and knew a third (Much Ado About Nothing), leaving one play (The Winter's Tale) which I was unfamiliar with. I am always amazed by just how much you can get out of a play, even if you'd read it before. Actually, especially if you've read it before. I've always been interested in Ophelia--I never really bought that she was an oblivious character kind of unimportant to the plot. We had this amazing guest lecturer come in to our class and she did an ecofeminist reading of Ophelia. It was beyond interesting. It really challenged my previous readings, forced me to look at through another lens, and reassess my thoughts. That's what I love about books in general--every time you read them, you bring something new to the table and challenge the text, or vice versa. I love when that happens.

On another note, sorority recruitment went well. Our numbers were lower than usual, but the quality of girls was just astounding. And on top of that, I'm so happy to be a Kappa. All of my sisters are absolutely wonderful. I feel that, as a house, we've grown so much closer to each other because of two weeks of sheer insanity and seeing each other constantly. I have a feeling this is going to be a good year. We've got big plans for our philanthropy event and everybody is stoked to get started on that. I'm just thrilled this year!

It is now block break, and instead of heading up north to spend some quality time with the family, I am off to Kansas for my first college-level speech competition. I'm scared out of my mind. I've been so busy that I don't feel prepared. But I'm just going to have to suck it up and go for it. I've never felt truly ready for just about any tournament I've gone to over the years. I guess it just goes with the territory. I just have to take the plunge. We'll see how if goes--I've really missed Speech and I've been really happy working on my pieces. I feel at home. I feel in my element. Now, we'll just have to see where that takes me...