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Being a Senior is ridiculously amazing. It's more so because it obviously wasn't very important in high school. I love more than just being at the top of the food chain: the opportunity to interact with some fantastic fellow students [student fed representative], faculty [senior class officers], and professors [dr victor david hanson, dr reist, etc]. I love being in the groove of leadership and responsibility. I have come to love this campus and my education so dearly; it's wonderful to understand a little better and give a little back. I'm reminded once again that my education is priceless and something far more important than the $100,000 piece of paper I'll be handed in May. I'm more involved and busy than ever, but I love it.
looking acrosss the front quad towards kendall [we've mostly had constant crazy storms, but managed to get in a couple of beautiful august days]
my other halves, hannah and christine [library constuction]
making history at the senior party: amy, emily, and christine [please note our amazing senior t-shirts]
partying like rock stars with my suitemate maria and my [american?] idol natalie. they sing opera and make everyone laugh with ridiculous stories
Packing is old hat. But I'm so tired of it. I actually started before 10 pm this time, but I think it's mostly because I am so terribly sick of it. It's just boring. I feel like just leaving all my clothes behind because I'm in an apathetic mood [not about life or most things, just packing].
Perhaps I'll be more philosphical about senior year on airport wireless tomorrow morning...Oh, wait, I forgot, senior year is all about apathy! I'm right on schedule.
Tonight, I breathe in my last breaths of Portland summer evening air and take in sights that I'll see next in the rain.
Graduation is nine months from today.
Milicent suggested the other day [on one of our many lovely excursions this summer. short time spans increase desperate meetings] that perhaps I just need something to catch my fancy and blog about it. Thus proceeding with eyes wide open [i just spelled it wyde. totally not right. i dyspyse excessive and improper "y for i" exchanges], I have found my occasion to speak. [to speak in font rather than sounds]
Yesterday evening, I retired my old blue Nalgene. I've been thinking about a Powell's Lit one for a long time [not copying you, mili, i swear] and since I'm embarrassed to say how old my blue Nalgene is, [i got it while i was working at bibo, though] I decided it was time for an upgrade.
We won't go into my strange affinity for objects [or rotating footwear so no shoes feel left out], but I felt kind of sad thinking about all the things Ol' Blue has gotten me through. Milicent gave me the Billabong sticker, the first one to lose its suedey feel and become a dirty grey blob, and Danielle sent me the big one when she competed in the Jr. Olympics. It had the logo on it at one time. It got me through my internship, road trips, and subsequent college classes in Hillsdale and Portland [spanish last summer]. It travelled full on planes to keep me hydrated, and now lies mournfully dry through airport screening due to new security regulations. Blue has spilled awkwardly down the front of a lot of my clothes and surprised me with strangely glacial rushes of ice.
But now, with stickers faded and so many scratches that it never actually feels clean [no matter how much soap i use or the frequency of application], I feel that it's time to retire. Blue had a good run. [it's strange that my constantly closest objects never get names?] So please, enjoy a moment of silence and raise your own Nalgenes everywhere to the old and the new.
With only a week left in my Portland summer time, expect frantic errands, as much time with people and away from computers as possible, and one melancholy "senior year packing" blog.
an update on most of my current summer life. completed books are in italics. please inquire for top picks from previous years.
[2007]
The Road [cormac mccarthy] - 287
Independence Day [richard ford] - 451
The Girl Who Married a Lion [alexander mccall smith] - 174
The Moviegoer [walker percy] - 241
The Size of Thoughts: essays [nicholson baker] - 355
A Moveable Feast [ernest hemingway] - 211
Dandelion Wine [ray bradbury] - 237
The Bingo Palace [louise erdrich] - 274
Fatherland [robert harris] - 338
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows [j.k. rowling] -753
Housekeeping [marilyn robinson]
Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix [j. k. rowling]
The Crossing [cormac mccarthy]
Total Abandon [gary witherall]
Are Women Human? [dorothy sayers]
The Lay of the Land [richard ford]
A Soldier of the Great War [mark helprin]
Daisy Miller [henry james]
Nebraska [ron hansen]
Heir to the Glimmering World [cynthia ozick]
Complete Short Stories [flannery o'connor]
When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does. [you've got mail]
It's never a good idea to live in the past, but sometimes it's awfully nice to visit for an afternoon. I had goldfish crackers for lunch.
This is my last summer. What I mean is, these six weeks have been my last chance to have all the things that the word "summer" means: time off from school, no serious responsibilities, reading in the sunshine by the pool on a weekday, eating snowcones, making sidewalk chalk roadsigns, and catching fireflies at night. Next summer, I will be a Bachelor of Arts College Graduate. Next summer, I will be in a different type of season, one that is wide open and exciting and completely new. Summer will never again mean what it means to me today. I don't really mind. I'm as excited for the future as I am about the present.
I've learned a lot about childhood this summer. Living in a house with five amazing kids under age twelve has brought out a lot of thinking about my own former life and the way I relate to that Emily. Because of who she was, what she read, who she played with, what she thought, I am the Emily I am today, the Emily who turns twenty-two in a month, has a credit card, and decides when she goes to bed.
This afternoon, I spent hours in the children's section of the tiny Tyrone, Georgia library. It reminded me of Emily's Runaway Imagination and the excitement of something we take for granted in our beautiful modern cities. I pulled out all the titles and authors I remember getting as a kid, so I can share them with my Mount friends. They already know most of them, which is really exciting to me. I like sharing my favorite literature, even if it is with a six year old.
I like reading books that changed the world, but it's also been really amazing to reread some of the authors that changed my childhood world: Steven Kellog, Maud Hart Lovelace, James Stevenson, William Stieg, Gertrude Chandler Warner, Beverly Cleary...
It always delights me that I live next to Klickitat Street, across the river from the Beverly Clearly Children's Room at the Central Library, north of the little town where she grew up, and west of the Ramona and Ribsy statues in Grant Park. Someday, I want to read her books to my children, to shape their imaginations and tell them about my childhood: playing outside until the streetlights came on, walking to the library, family reading every night, and my last real summer, chasing fireflies and kids in Georgia.
Go read a book, before you're too grown up.
It kind of feels weird posting without pictures. I'll probably put up more soon once I finish this weeks big project...the video room here at OM. Forget your boring Starbucks colored walls, this week I've been painting black and green screen! Anna's picking up the rest of the Ikea furniture today, so we should be in business for next week's grand show-off of the Creative Department's new space in the OM building.
While I'm waiting for my paint to dry [which is only slightly more entertaining than it sounds], I've been reading the news headlines. Every time I start to imagine that college has given my already-genius mind a boost towards intelligence, I read an article like this. I pretty much have no conception of what they're talking about: "If the Russian computers aren't fixed by the time Atlantis leaves, the station would have to use the gyroscopic control system in the U.S. segment to stay on track. But the more responsive Russian thruster system would be out of commission."
Seriously, a gyroscopic control system in the U.S. segment? That sounds like something "totally WICKED" [but really really made-up] from a fifties comic book. I totally wish I knew what that was all about, though. Maybe we can work out a powerpoint introduction to space filmed against the new green screen?
my friends, may you grow in grace
and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior
my friends, may you grow in grace
and the knowledge of Jesus Christ
Spending time with old friends is always exciting. It's been three years since my internship with TeenPact, and I actually worked with less than half of those twelve people during our season. Time has changed all of us, but because we love Jesus, that change is absolutely and completely good. I am thrilled to count as my closest friends a group of people who are scattered across the states and only see each other in small groups a couple times per year. It's hard, but I think it makes our hours together all the more precious. It was especially cool to see how God is calling us individually to go into all the world and share His love. [we're becoming quite the well-traveled family!] We live far apart, but are growing and moving on parallel lines.
i pray tonight, as we learn from one another
may we glorify Him, and if the Lord
should bring us back together,
may we be in His arms til then
dani and me
cruising the highways of life with three amazing women
[that's the corner of jeni's pink shirt]
dani and i spent a day with a tired but lovely lydia
dani and lily, two girls more dear to me than i can say
Lil, D, and I had many late night discussions [in the hot tub, laying around eating ice cream, etc] trying to discover what it means to live the Abundant Life that Jesus came to give us. It's sobering to realize how often my conversations are about things which don't matter. I want to have more tough conversations!
One night, Dani and I stayed up most of the night talking about college and how God has used education in our lives to spark an excitement for the world, studying, and a complete revision of our thought patterns in pretty much every subject. I'm excited to have friends at other schools who are enjoying their studies as much as I am. We shared lists of our favorite and most challenging books and swapped stories about our most quirky [but dearest] professors.
I'm realizing more and more that maybe your closest friends aren't necessarily the ones you live with every day [though i'm jealous of you who get to] or who you always agree with, but those people who will talk through life and faith with you: listening, conversing, and challenging you with their lives. I have a lot to process still, so this is a poor representation of my thoughts, but I just wanted to say that I am so glad to have each of you in my life, dear friends across the country [and now, around the world!].
to God be the glory
now and forever
now and forever
amen
