Oh, wow.
Since I last blogged (excluding the occasional Facebook note), I have gone through so much.
I worked at a camp that summer, and for two and a half months, I chased around girls (it was a Girl Scout camp) who chased me around and called me Blueberry. I rode horses, climbed mountains, slept under the stars and survived an ‘interesting’ (read: insane) camp director– as well as other camp-related drama that I don’t quite feel like elaborating about at the moment. I met young women my age who were just as nutters as I was, and maintained a healthy Trojan-Bruin rivalry the entire time. I ended up doing an eight-clap (*shudder*), but I have since recovered from the shock. I had the time of my life.
My father was diagnosed with cancer, and my family had to learn to deal. School started. I hated my Chem TA, but stupidly stuck with the same section. I felt alone– it felt like everyone in the world was going off in their own direction, and I felt like I was alone. Then, I started to feel like I was being narcissistic for wallowing in my self-pity, and I could slap myself for thinking the thoughts I did during my self-imposed exile from college life as a result. It felt like I missed out on so much while complaining about wanting to transfer. It’s almost funny going through the piles of papers on my desk and counting the unfinished transfer applications, usually covered in frustrated scribbles and dots of ink from dysfunctional blue pens.
I declared a major. I’m environmental studies (with an emphasis in Biology!), and minoring in Peace and Conflict studies, which has to be the most fascinating minor ever. I get to take some awesome electives for both of my concentrations (woot Ecofeminism!), although I’m still tempted to double-major. (This is where the left side of my brain screams, “Tuition!”, and the right side soothingly reasons that I’ll find a scholarship somehow.)
I questioned my sexuality. I could comment on it, but I feel like it’s something that I’ll still be trying to figure out for years to come, so I’ll be like Yahweh and say that I am what I am.
I asked a lawyer from Illinois a question, and he gave me a straight answer. I saw the same man become our next president. At the same time, my heart broke when I saw the same country that had elected this man to be its leader deny so many people an integral, fundamental right that so many had abused and thrown away…
I never did NaNoWriMo, but I have a friend that did (while still being a premed…rock on!), and I am incredibly eager to read her novel.
Speaking of novels (well, short stories), I am finally reading Run by Ann Patchett (go read Bel Canto if you haven’t already!) and rediscovering Roald Dahl. After reading classics like The BFG and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory more times than I can recall, I feel like Dahl’s short stories were written by a completely different person. They’re darkly ironic and funny. In one, titled “An African Story”, an old man tricks a sociopath into being bitten by a lactose-loving black mamba…
I desperately need to catch up on my reading over the break. I’ll have access to a library in my neighborhood over my winter vacation, so it’ll be nice to retreat to the solitude of a book while escaping from the hectic Yuletide craziness that my house usually morphs into at this time of the year.
And so, here I am. Finals have come upon me, I’m trying to find a research project to latch onto next semester (currently interested in conservation biology), and I’m gearing up for Washington for spring break. : )
In the meantime, I’m thinking about starting an environmentally-friendly blog. It feels like there aren’t enough college students at USC that care all that much about the environment, so I’d like to create a blog that links everything together and creates this kind of ‘green news feed’ for LA college students.
I’ve just come up with the idea today, so I’m still working out the kinks. What do you think so far?
I’d still like to keep this blog. It might as well be a private journal, though, because it feels like no one really reads it…
Oh, the joys of anonymity.
Hmm. Since my cousin taught me how to knit over Thanksgiving, I suddenly feel like starting a knitting circle or something. No, I’m not nesting prematurely– it seems like it would be an awesome way to meet people.
Oops– forgot about this assignmnent. Gotta get this thing done tonight!
–l.l
