T-60 min

I have class in an hour!! I am most definitely freaking out but can't wait to talk about it afterward!

Books, Books and More Books!

So in order to pass the time, I've been immersing myself into the world of fiction. Re-reading all the Harry Potter and Twilight series was great and I've now moved on to classics...Animal Farm and Brave New World.

Animal Farm was amazing; it made me feel great to be so engaged in a text. The history behind the text was great; subtle communist undertones with images of Stalin and Trotsky fighting for power of the farm. The evolution of the text from a utopian society to a totalitarian dictatorship was incredibly well described and well written. It was really nice that Mike read it too; I enjoyed being able to discuss literature with him. It's nice that we can broaden our relationship and have more and more in common every day.

Brave New World was a good read too; not necessarily as interesting as Animal Farm but still provided an Orwell-like look at society. It kind of reminded me of 1984 in that a group of elites have altered society in order to create what they think is a "utopian" society. Somewhat predictably, those deemed "individuals" are forced to leave the utopian society and ultimately the "savage" man from the old world cannot acclimate himself to the new world. While the end of the book was great, the middle was still somewhat slow...

Anyways, today after I finished Brave New World, I started Reading Lolita in Tehran. So far it's great. It's a woman's memoir about reading literature with a select group of women in Iran. Lolita is the novel being focused on right now and the author describes it so passionately that I want to read it! So I guess that will be next on my list...

The First Day...Sort Of

Today is the first day of classes...well the first day of classes for everyone but me. It is incredibly bittersweet. Anna and Em were talking about classes and getting ready last night and I just felt so displaced. I know that I'm starting classes next week, but still, it's that feeling that I'm doing something different, that I'm working towards a new goal that not everyone can relate too. And I'm excited but yet a little nostalgic as well.

Today I also started my babysitting job. In some ways it makes me feel like a bum babysitting instead of working in some sort of education setting. But in the same way I'm hoping that this will be a nice way to acclimate my way to graduate school rather than pushing too much on myself at once. I also was looking for different organizations to volunteer with this year; the next step is to actually go out and participate with different groups instead of just thinking it would be a good opportunity.

Other than that, nothing too exciting is going on. I'm ready to be busy again...I know that I will be soon and then I'll begin to terribly miss my summer of wasted time. But until then I guess I'll just dream of filling my hours with things that seem productive. Ha!

Until next time...

Getting Ready

Well the new semester is getting closer and is accompanied by so much excitement and angst that I'm starting to go a little crazy in anticipation! I bought most of my books last week and had orientation for my program. I've been full of nerves ever since. There were so many people at orientation and many of them were so much older than me - it's definitely going to be a new experience. I'm pretty intimidated by the course load and the proximity in which I'll be working to renowned professors. I've been trying so hard to hide from professors and attention for the past four years that now, all of a sudden, I'm getting pretty anxious about this whole experience.

But still, I'm so excited. I feel like all of a sudden I'll be working on something that will make a real difference in what I want to do. Undergrad to me was amazing, but in the same way it was so easy and filled with so many other experiences, like meeting people and working, that school wasn't always my first priority. But now...well now I'm going to have to focus and apply myself, but I'm hoping I'll be able to because I'll actually want too.

I'll be spending the rest of my weekend at home and heading back to school tomorrow night. Then next week will be dedicated to buying the rest of my books, starting my babysitting gig and grappling with the fact that my other friends have class as undergrads and I don't get to start until the week after. Confusing, but worth it, I'm sure.

Well I'm off to enjoy the rest of the weekend -- thanks for listening to my newfound angst!