Post College Is On the Horizon

Do you want to know a secret? I've been trying to write a new blog post for three months but (for this or that reason) it keeps not happening. So today I'm determined to create a post.
Here we go--
Last night, as I sat at my kitchen counter working on job applications, I looked over to my roommate and said, "Do you realize that, in a year, we will have just started our last quarter of college?" Suffice it to say that we had a mutual freak out moment that this phase of our lives is actually that close to ending. Yes, we still have a calender year with five quarters to get through (this spring quarter is included in that count as is this summer quarter) but that's not really that long.
Well, it is long and it's not.
Right before this school year started, I ran into a dancing friend who was entering her senior year. I asked her if she had any plans for post-college. Her response was something along the lines of, "Graduation is nine months away. If I got pregnant right now, I could have a child by the time I graduate. It's still too far away to really think about." She went on to clarify that she was not planning to get pregnant and that she had a few ideas about what she might do once she had her diploma in hand, but the "it's still nine months away" comment was great for a laugh and to remind me that senior year is about more than graduating.
While I am still a junior, I can feel senior year approaching fast and I'm doing my best not to be terrified of everything that it means. I mean, really, junior year comes with its own set of worries that I'm trying to tackle at the moment. Why take on senior year worries now?
Though, I do admit that one of my favorite pastimes recently is pondering what I might once I'm out in the real world. Here's my list of ideas so far:

• Author of novels (probably YA fiction) 
• Flight Attendant
• Vagabond
• Something in the marketing/communications field
• Travel Writer 

For any who don't know, I'm studying Linguistics as my major, Creative Writing as my minor, and am planning to also complete a Spanish language minor. The summation of these are that I'm into language(s). The logic train in my head goes: languages -> cultures -> people -> travel. I'm also a very people-centric person, which is to say that I need to have people in my life pretty constantly. That's probably kind of a ridiculous thing to state verbatim because we, as humans, are social creatures, but I'm a fan of extra clarification so ta-da. Being as mobile as most of these aforementioned ideas would allow me to be is both wonderful and terrifying. Wonderful because I would presumably be in constant contact with lots of different people. Terrifying because I don't know how likely it would be that I'd be in regular contact friends and I care very dearly for my friends.

My dream, pretty much

Again with the obvious statements but being out of college is going to be such a new experience. School has been an integral part of my life since I was five years old. I'm nearly twenty-one years of life on this planet so some quick math leaves us with the fact that I've been school-centric for sixteen years. And I'm still preparing to add one more year to that count before I find a new norm. 

A new norm. Really, that's what graduating is going to mean for me (and what I'm guessing it means for a fair number of my predecessors.) I know there's an ideal that people who attend universities will learn not only their chosen subject matter but also how to adapt, grow, and do both productively, possibly with other people present. I'm also hoping that I have learned how to adapt better than I mastered (or perhaps "mastered") my chosen subject matter. While I am curious about linguistics, love creative writing, and desire to know more about the Spanish language, the skills taught to me in those classes may not always be directly applicable to life in the real world. (No, I don't really consider college to be the 'real world' but it's a good stepping stone). That said being able to adapt to new situations will always serve me well.
In short, it's hard to believe that the college part of my life is so close to being over and I am very curious to see what post-college has in store for me.

Halloween Begins

 My roommate altered the caption after I drew this. It now says "The beautifully drawn pumpkin says: Happy October!" with 'beautifully' in fancy cursive. Anyways, a vampire-esque pumpkin seemed like a necessity today so, ta da, there's a vampire-esque pumpkin.
Speaking of my roommate, (scratch that, flatmate) she would probably say that Halloween has been going on ever since our calendars hit October the first. She says (and I don't quite know if she's joking) that "Halloween is a mindset". It's an interesting concept to have a mental state equivalent to a holiday. I'm not sure how much we've been Halloween-y thus far this month (though there has been an upwards trend in how much we listen to the amazing tunes provided by "Rocky Horror Picture Show"). I wonder what that graph would look like..."Number of Rocky songs listened to vs. Time of Year". It'd be a line graph for sure, with lots of colors. I like colors :)
Coming back to the point, if we allow that maybe Halloween didn't quite start on the 1st of the month, I think it can officially start tonight. At least for me. My flatmate's Halloween may start tomorrow. Tonight is the first of what feels like many Halloween parties that I will be participating in. Begin the parade of costumes (of which there are actually six--oh my). I think I'm most excited for the costumes (no, the plural isn't a typo) that I'm going to wear on Halloween itself.
Side note: there are "free hugs" people in Red Square :) I love the "free hugs" people.
Also, wow, I'm a ridiculously large fan of parenthetical statements... whoops
The other reason that this weekend should be amazing is that I have an out-of-towner coming up! Namely, my brother :) I feel like I haven't seen him in a while, so getting to spend the weekend doing all manner of fun things should be quite wonderful.
So the conclusion of all of this is that Halloween and midterms shouldn't happen at the same time :/ but that this weekend and this coming week are going to be fan-freaking-tastic!
And now I'm going to go giggle about how that's a reference to my linguistics class... Happy Friday! 

4 Hours of Sleep + Quiz + Test = Good Day?

Newly realized pet peeve: when someone walks slowly and doesn't pick a side of the sidewalk! I'm all walking behind them and don't want to be a jerk about the fact that I walk faster, but they make it so hard to pass politely! All I ask is that people are aware of their surroundings!
I've had a lot of strong feelings this morning...sometimes sleep shortages are great for brain blasts. But only sometimes. I promise not to make short nights a habit. Pinky promise, even!
Okay, a few deep breath...in...out...in...out... And moving on
For any who don't know, people watching is practically a hobby and, dear goodness, the Underground Coffee House on campus is just bursting with interesting people to observe. I find myself legitimately unable to concentrate on story planning (NaNo is 8 days away!!) when chilling in here because there's always someone doing something that I'm curious about. Extra points to the girl who was at an adjacent table for having a sweet tattoo :) Like, I have so many characters and character relations to sort out but I won't be doing it here because people are interesting, man! Perhaps they can function as inspiration later...
Though, speaking of adjacent tables, I've decided (officially) that getting to know someone is seriously the biggest favor you can do them. Or yourself for that matter. Like, there's this pair of girls in my Spanish class that have a history of giving me grumpy feels because of how much they whisper and chatter in class. They always seem irked about the material, which is confusing to the nth degree in my book. Anyways, after the Spanish test today, I ended up in the Underground (for the WWU cats who don't know, the Underground has a sandwich with apples on it. It's amazing. Go eat one). After I sat down and sort of settled, it clicked that one of said pair of annoying girls was sitting at a nearby table. We said 'hey' and chatted about the test/class. Now, let me be clear. I don't think this one interaction is the key to me never being annoyed again, it was nice to touch base and get to know a bit of what makes her tick. (sidebar: I feel obsessed with clocks at the moment).
I'm sort of in this "I love people" daze at the moment. This week has been kind of a whirlwind in regards to how much friend/people interaction I've been involved in but I'm at a very happy place in the storm--if you'll pardon the analogy. Like, Monday was blah but last nigh and today have been exceptionally lovely. New friends (or rekindling older friendships) are quite rewarding. And nice.
I should maybe stop calling them 'new' when I've known of them for a year... Maybe. I shall have to reflect on that

Anonymous Superheroes in the Harry Potter room

For some reason, I find it really entertaining to listen to EDM in the "quiet" areas of the library. (clarification, I do use headphones). I just think it's funny how often I hear that silence is better for studying and then feel like the odd one out for liking to have some sort of noise happening around me when I study/do homework. Fun fact, "CSI: NY" functions really well as background noise. I honestly think it helps my brain focus if it has two things to focus on. Otherwise, it wanders to random-whatever or just kind of shuts down. The former tends to lead to another thing to focus on (over the past few weeks, it's been running off to NaNo planning whenever it gets the chance). The latter, however, gets me into some trouble. If you look at my notes, you can definitely see the moments in class where I start drifting off.
I thought I was supposed to get less fidgety as an adult, not more. Seriously, it is much harder for me to sit through a boring class now than it ever was in middle or high school. Though, I admit, some of that can probably be attributed to the fact that I was getting more consistent and just more sleep than I do now.
Speaking of NaNo planning, I think it's okay to start the count down now: 16 days until I can actually start writing :) Between then and now, I plan to finish sketching out all my characters and their relations to each other, map out their city, and flesh out my plot. Lots to do in between all the homework and Halloween plans. My roommate's enthusiasm about the holiday is pretty infectious and, since Halloween is as good an excuse as any for a party, I have the need for five costumes. Let me say that again. I will be wearing five costumes over the course of the last week of October. And I have an idea for a sixth, should the need for it arise.
Confession time: the inspiration for this post came mostly from desire to not to more homework. Sorry if it's a little scatterbrained :P
But can I tell you about the other cool thing that happened today? I stopped by the international studies office here on campus and picked up some study abroad research things. Spain sounds fun.  Potential summer plans, right there.

Also, just in case anyone was curious, here was my music of choice this afternoon; it's one of my favorite sets: Adventure Club -- "Superheroes Anonymous Volume. 3"

Oh Dear. Mondays.

Here's what today has looked like up until this point:
1) Alarm at 7:00 a.m.
2) Snooze until 7:20 a.m.
3) Prepare for day until 8:00 a.m.
4) Leave for campus at 8:00 a.m.
5) 8:30 a.m. to 9:50 a.m. is Linguistics
6) 10:00 a.m. to 10:50 a.m. is Spanish
7) Catch bus home
8) Watch episode of "CSI: NY" while making/eating lunch and dinner
9) Leave (again) for campus, catch bus at 12:40 p.m.
10) Meeting with academic advisers at 1:00 p.m.
11) Finish meeting at 1:30 p.m., head to library
12) Complete Spanish homework by 2:05 p.m. and wonder about Linguistics

Oddly enough, this is not any more busy than a typical Monday. Usually my step 7 is to go to the gym, a shower is added to step 8 and I don't catch a bus back to campus until 2:40 p.m. -- just in time to make it to my class that goes from 3:00 p.m. to 6:50 p.m. How I'm going to stay awake in that class today, I have no idea. I used to be able to just zone out but now my brain automatically tries to go to sleep. All I want to do with my afternoon is go on a run, plan for NaNoWriMo, and watch "Hemlock Grove". Alas, I shall be stuck in class -- trying not to plan for NaNo. (Perhaps failing not to plan for NaNo.

Honestly, if there has to be one day a week where I am out of my house practically all day, Monday is probably a good day for it. No one likes Mondays anyways and then it's all over. The rest of my week is always pretty nice.

Here are some teacup bunnies for your Monday troubles

Welcome to Monday - Week Two

good morning pulmonic lungs, ridges, and egressives,
welcome to monday - week two
vocal folds not shown in class
but "glottis" is giggle worthy
do sexy voice. now do frog voice
have I told you how I love my professor?
articulators and tips, blades and hard palates
m as in "magic" and b as in "book"
welcome to monday - week two
conjugations and Spanish pronunciations
Si mi papá es profesor de ¿matematica?
I forgot how much I missed language
Even if that guy is in my class
I should probably tell mi profesora about Italy
welcome to monday - week two
surprise! another syllabus day
four hours class in one sitting
can't believe I haven't fallen asleep
well, mostly not
welcome to monday - week two

First Week of Classes, Year Three

It's surreal to think that I have officially started my junior year of college. Technically I crossed the junior-credit-level threshold at some point last school year. But it feels so different to cross that threshold than to walk into a classroom and think "This is my junior year of college". Thankfully, classes have gone very well thus far. Linguistics and Spanish are pretty up my alley, and my third class doesn't start until Monday so jury is still out on how that'll be. (Actually, the jury isn't even in yet because Monday is still three days away...anyways!)
I am happy to report that I feel a lot better going into this year than I have in previous years. Certain life elements feel more where they should be and it feels like I have a clear goal about what I need to be doing--at least on the academic front. Plus I get to explore the joys of off-campus living, which is pretty stellar so far. It was really nice to already be settled into my abode before classes started. Though, to be honest, it took until the last of my friends were back in town before I felt completely settled. I guess I didn't realize how much I believe the philosophy of "It's not where you are, it's who you're with". Retrospectively, though, it makes pretty perfect sense that I think like that. Some of my favorite vacations and cities are almost solely favorites because of the people I was with while exploring, and while I do have some amazing memories of me doing my own thing, I enjoy getting up to shenanigans with people more than doing it by myself.  Yay for friends!! :)
One of my goals for this year is to write significantly more than I've been over the past two. Sophomore year feels pretty successful since I did NaNoWriMo and I know that freshman year was affected by how swept I was with everything college. But I want to write with more regularity and increasing quality, la la la writer-goals. I don't know if I'll be doing most of my writing here or creatively in one of my many journals (seriously, I have four blank ones on my shelf at home). But I will be doing it somewhere. Fingers crossed, at least.
Basically, cheers to starting a new year and all of new chances this year will bring. Despite the homework I already have, I'm pretty excited :)