Saturday, June 8, 2013

Persistence….

Have you ever had one of those moments when you realize you aren’t fully aware or conscious of what you do?

That happened to me recently.

(And this has nothing to do with the humorous but oh so true thing I heard the other day… “You never realize how boring your life is until someone asks what you like to do for fun.”)

Anyway.

Just yesterday I was talking to someone who was complaining about a paper they had to write this weekend. And about all the writing that is being asked of them this semester. I thought about it for a minute and said,
 “I don’t really have a lot of writing this semester. “ I mean, I have writing assignments, sure. But
 “It’s not as bad as semesters past” I remembered.
The person looked at me with green eyes of envy and noted the jealousy and injustice of this situation.

It abruptly left my consciousness because something new captured both of our attention.

Then. Last night I was doing homework… endlessly typing on my computer.
This morning I woke up and finished my homework… again with a constant finger clicking sound.

I thought back on that conversation I had. Then I started counting all the writing assignments I had just finished. It wasn’t until 10:00 this morning that I realized that in less than 24 hours I had written over 15 pages of writing for various classes. 15. And that's a pretty common occurrence too… (especially now with my new block class.)

Psshhh. And I thought I wasn't do a lot of writing...

“That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do so has increased.” Ralph Waldo Emerson


Or maybe I was just blocking the pain from my mind…. Either way, if I’m not thinking about it I’m fine. 

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Travel

For the past few years I've had a strong desire to travel. (Probably since studying Sociology... it's just so fascinating! We are seriously products of our environment - what's normal to us is so NOT normal to other humans. Even the way we think and understand. It's so cool!)  I've made a list of a few countries that I really, really want to go to (England, France, Ireland, Austria, India, Spain, Germany, etc.... ) I could go on forever because i'd be happy going just about anywhere.
So now as my undergraduate college experience is coming to a close, I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do with my life. This travel thing has not been far from my mind. Ever. Teaching English somewhere, study abroad, touring the world, humanitarian service projects... I've thought about it all. A couple years ago, while at EA, I was thinking about going to Ecuador to work in an orphanage. And I was serious. It just never worked out (the joys of being poor). 
Well in the last few weeks it's re-surfaced. I've emailed the orphanage people again, I've looked at possible dates, finances, etc. I want to do it sooo bad! I'm going to make it work this time. 

Then today something happened. 
I started my 2nd block class. 
Culture and Gender. 

As the professor introduced himself he told us WHY it was just a second block class. He just returned earlier this week from India. Where he's been living for the past 6 months. Teaching at a college in Delhi. Fo' real?! Before he came to this university 5 years ago he was teaching in Egypt. He's lived on every continent but Antarctica and has been to tons of different countries. Not just toured, but lived with the people - for research or to teach. This is going to be such an interesting class (Although he's kicking my booty already... 5 pages on 90+ pages of reading due for every class... yikes!) But I have a feeling it's going to increase my desire to travel the world to close to... infinity.... and beyond! (Thanks Buzz)
Abbbaschanabba! 

While I wallow in self-pity about my lack of cultural experience, i'll let you look at some cool places of places I want to go! Straight from Pinterest of course.