Loving: Fall break. As you can see from the picture above, it is absolutely beautiful in Clearwater, Florida. Hanging out and catching up with Hannah is so fun and so good. I've been able to go in to her school and observe some classrooms to get ideas for my own, have extended periods of time to catch up on finishing my report cards and schoolwork (a lot more to finish yet...), and have an hour here or there to lay out in the sunshine. I love the midwest dearly, but I love taking the trips away.
Reading: A few books, actually! Look at me go. I've used this break to my advantage in the reading department. I've gone on a Shauna Niequist binge, reading two of her books in three days. I saw her book Bittersweet laying on the coffee table in Hannah's apartment, picked it up, and didn't put it down. Then her roommate asked if I wanted to borrow the other book of hers, called Cold Tangerines and now I'm finishing that as we speak. She has a way of writing that makes me feel like I'm not the only one with swirling thoughts, words, and sentence fragments floating through my brain at any given moment. I've also been reading How Children Succeed by Paul Tough, which has me considering so many important issues when it comes to my children, Chicago, and what it will take for the world to be a place of opportunity for them and not a place of constant heartbreaking disappointment. He champions the development of character in a child as the number one way to help him or her become successful in the future, and backs it with a flood of research. More of my thoughts on his book later.
Watching: The headlines, dialogue, and circus surrounding this government shutdown. I suppose it's happened before in the 1980's and so I shouldn't be alarmed that the world is ending; we've made it through before. But what it does give me pause to consider is the way that we get along, the way we make decisions, and the way that we speak to one another in this country. Sometimes I feel like I'm in the middle of such a selfish, illogical, and unjust society. What that means, I suppose, is that people need to start standing up for what is right and just and not what is ME. We are such a people obsessed with the idea of ME-ness, myself the first in need of an attitude makeover.
Anticipating: So much in the YA literature department. I pre-ordered the third book in Veronica Roth's Divergent Series, which releases on October 22!! I plan on devouring that book the second it reaches my hands. Then, Catching Fire comes out that very week in theaters!!! My Katniss alter-ego has been laying dormant waiting for the next movie to be released. I'm so excited!!! There are so many exclamation points!!!!
Listening to: The Cranberries. I have Linger on repeat right now. I can't explain it, but they speak to me. Sometimes I sing along in my own Celtic accent to feel like I'm really there. I also am listening to a million new bands I have never heard before, thanks to my boyfriend's addiction to music blogs that discover bands so he can say things like, "You've probably never heard of them before, but..." In all seriousness, he has really good taste. So I get the benefit of many cool suggestions. CHVRCHES, Grouplove, and Justin Vernon are my favorite additions he's given to my musical knowledge database. I feel more authentically like a resident of Pilsen with all of this hipster cred I'm getting.
Planning: A few things: 1) More little get-togethers. No big parties or bachelorette parties to fund and coordinate, but I'm making a bigger effort to have coffe-shop-get-work-done-sessions with TFA friends, monthly dinner dates with my college friends, and visits to my family when I can make them. and I'm also planning 2) My effort at tackling making working out a more consistent and regular part of my life. It was one of my goals before I turned 25 to have a regular fitness routine, and I'm figuring out that plan these days. I don't want only to be working out excitedly when I have a half marathon or 15k looming, I want to be doing those runs and events in the midst of the good stuff I'm doing anyway. I still will sign up for any and every 5k and more that I can find, but you get the point. The gym has been joined and the plans are just starting to take shape.
Working on: My master's degree. Doing school and work is exhausting. Particularly when the "work" part of that equation takes up much more time than 9-5 each day. By May I'll have my Master's of Arts in Teaching from Dominican University, if all goes well and the funds all go through. It's a weekly grind and routine, doing schoolwork throughout the week and attending long hours of night classes every Thursday in a classroom a half hour away, but I am excited to think about the light at the end of the tunnel, that is coming in the form of a certificate with my name on it, in about 8 months or so. I think I can, I think i can, I think I can...
Wishing: That I could freeze time. I love fall and all these changes we're seeing. I love how I feel at this point in my life right now and right here. I have so many blessings and struggles and bright spots and gray days. The mix of the sublime and the difficult and the mundane and the peaceful in my life right now gives me a sneaking feeing that I'm growing, stretching, and forming more into the person whom I was really meant to be. I love the hustle and bustle and twists and turns of becoming that person. I know that I can't freeze time, and that it will relentlessly bring me forward to much higher highs and even some lower lows, but the satisfaction I feel in this time in my life right now in working and living and dreaming and being is rich and full and good.
How about you? How are you currently living and doing and working? Let's get together and talk about it.
How about you? How are you currently living and doing and working? Let's get together and talk about it.
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