Day #8035 - Birthday Blog!

Getting this in just under the wire!

Reader's Digest version for now:
Yesterday I was 21. Today I'm 22. Was a completely ordinary day, and because that was the case, one of the better birthdays I've had in a long time because I didn't hype it up before hand. Good times.

Day #8034 - Another Year Gone

In just under an hour and a half, my life as a 21 year old will be over. I know that a lot of people joke that turning 22 means your life ends because it really means you're an adult (because now you've had a year of legal drinking, which means you ought to be more responsible about life), but I have mixed feelings. It has been one crazy year.

It's hard to believe that this time last year, I had just moved in to Barton Hall, yet to experience the joys of CI403, and the chaos that is student teaching was still five months away. It feels like all of that was so much longer than a year behind me. So being 21 was full of big changes - legal life, a temporary return to dorm life, leaving the campus that had been my home for the last three and a half years, surviving a semester as "Miss Fuma - Student Teacher", graduating from college, changing my life plan and starting my master's degree, a new puppy, travels near and far, I could go on and on and on. There have been plenty of ups and downs, many of which have been documented either here or in my journal, but I made it. We're back here again.

So I should be hitting the sack soon seeing as tomorrow, in addition to being my birthday, is also the first day of the new school year. My classes don't actually start meeting until Tuesday, but I'm going to go to the library and try to get ahead on some homework anyway. So so long, 21. It's been quite an interesting time to say the least. Catch you on the flip side.

Day #8000 - Me and John Mellencamp

It's become an interesting practice to measure my life in days with this blog rather than just years, and to realize that I am 8,000 days old has been interesting to say the least. When I realized this day was coming up, part of me instantly thought that I should try to make it unique somehow. Memorable. Special. Then I remembered how when I've tried doing that in the past with birthdays, Hallmark Holidays, and New Year's Eve, it's never lived up to the hype and I always end up disapointed. I also thought of the title I gave to this blog over two years ago, "Just Another Day," and it actually did shape the way I chose to spend this, my 8,000th day of life.

I wasn't being apathetic when I came up with the name for this blog. In fact, a lot of careful consideration and thought went into the decision and it all comes down to John Mellencamp. In 1997, he released the song "Just Another Day" and I remember always finding the tune incredibly catchy. The lyrics talk about how days can go by so quickly and the idea of living in the now because it'll be over before you know it. We spend so much time thinking about the past and the future that the present is easily forgotten. That message combined with my decision to label every entry with a day number fit well together.

And so today really was just another day. Woke up listening to Eric & Kathy on WTMX, ran on the treadmill and did a short workout, did laundry, cleaned my room, went to Michael's to get a frame for my latest needlepoint project, practiced my guitar, and have been drawing while watching my old West Wing dvds. In the grand scheme of things, was today especially memorable? Not at all. But it was still a good day and I think all of us should take the time more often to step back, look at what we have, and be grateful for it.

I blink my eyes and the moment is over. I guess another day has passed...

Day #7996 - New Recruits

I really need to remember to post here in 4 days when I will now be over 8000 days old! wooot!

In other news, I will be very happy when this class is over with in a few days. Everyone who is here for the first section is completely wiped, and it was just funny today when we left lecture this morning and saw all the people who are here for the second session. I feel like a high school sophomore - we just want to warn the newbies and tell them "Start studying for the final now! Memorize the readings as soon as you can! You're not going to sleep for the next week and a half!" But then I see that they're so smiley and excited and I just don't want to be the one to ruin that haha.

Focusing has been a bit of an issue lately, and it's only becoming a greater challenge as the desire to sleep is growing. We had lecture this morning, we're about to have a discussion section now, a break before another lecture around dinner time, and then a short break before having to give group presentations tonight until 8pm. Then we have a paper due tomorrow morning at 8am, lecture, study study study, another lecture Saturday morning and then my final that afternoon. And THEN I'm done!

Keep it classy, readers!

***5:42 Edit***
Just got my paper back that I turned in two days ago. I got a B, which maybe I'd be more okay with if I wasn't such a perfectionist. Feeling good about the presentation tonight, it'll be hard to mess up the paper due tomorrow, and scared to death about the Final Exam on Saturday. Can't wait to be DONE!

Day #7304 - End of a Teenage Era

So in just under two hours, I leave my teenage years behind and move into my twenties. While the past 6 years have been eventful to say the least, I'm actually much more nervous about this new chapter. From 8th grade until now, changes have obviously happened in me - junior high, all of high school, and half of my college career all done. But as they say, the more things change, the more they stay the same. I still love The West Wing and government, music, books, art, crafts, am incredibly shy even with people I do know, want to make friends that will last a lifetime, and find a place in this world where I truly and absolutely belong. So I guess this is a sort of toast by me for me - here's to everything that brought me to today and to everything that is to come. Who thought it would ever happen? Certainly not me :o)