Saturday, September 18, 2010

my autumn soundtrack


This blog is recently become more of a tribute to Ingrid Michaelson, and I can't say that there's any part of me that doesn't like it. Her new(ish) song, new to itunes, is the definition of bliss for your ears. But be warned, once you listen you'll be re-humming "I don't need a parachute baby if I've got you" all day. 


Friday, September 17, 2010

dusting off

ek, I always swore that if I didn't update my blog regularly, then I was going to delete it, what can I say.. I'm attached.

As fast as August fell away, so too has September. It's already mid-month and I am in the 4th week of my semester as a senior. My last autumn season in Happy Valley.

A lot has changed since my last entry nearly two months ago, at that time I was living by myself and soaking in the summer months while my friends went home for the school-year-break, but in the beginning of August, I moved to the west side of town and moved into the most charming old apartment you've ever laid eyes on. I also gained 4 ridiculously amazing roommates.

Our modest brick exterior and cherry hardwood floored interior apartment has been a haven to ourselves and the ones we love. We have lots of space (5 closets, 5 girls, the bliss!), built in shelves and an irreplaceable sense of community, friendship and love. We love hosting people and lighting candles. It's been great.

On the side of academia, I am trying to remember that in the midst of not wanting to study and do hours of homework, that this is presumably the last year of my life where I will be a student. An undergrad at least. Soon the cliche college things will be a way of the past and it will no longer be acceptable for me to roll out of bed in jeans and a worn hoodie, rush to class, spend money I don't have in starbucks and stay out until 4 a.m., with an obvious sleeping until noon the next day. This is the final year, this is it, and I have to be reminded of that when I get the urge to throw my computer out the window, which happens often. I love learning, and this is my last time, in the foreseeable future, that I'll be able to do so in a classroom setting. The marketplace of liberal and idealistic ideas that come about in a classroom discussion are something that are so precious and unique to my four years in college.

My "obligations that don't feel like obligations because I love them so much" are now in full swing, almost like there was never a break between spring and fall. I'm interning at a great non-profit and it scarily makes me feel like a grown up. I dress up, have a cubicle and even an email address with a company domain. What can I say, I'm living the dream. Thon and all things Navigators have picked up as well; imagining my school year without them is similar to a beach without an ocean -- just a desert --- what's the point? The amount of joy I reap from my extracurriculars is such a blessing and probably will leaving the biggest impact on me post-graduation.One more year of them, this is really a case where I need to remember to absorb every moment, good and stressful.

And so senior year begins. The last year of my twenty-somethings where I'll be enrolled in school. The last year of my twenty-somethings where my parents are still paying my rent, my car and cell phone bills.

I think it's going to be a great great year.