Completion and Reflection or, Conflection

As this school year comes to an end, I look back and wonder how on earth the time has passed so quickly. Seriously, there is absolutely no logical explanation for why school is almost over when it was just last month that we were starting the semester. Know what I mean?

I've learned a few things this past school year, no doubt about it. Not the school-type things, at least not for the purposes of this post, although I did learn quite a bit (some recent additions being the subjunctive tense in Spanish, what a worldview is, the fact that Paul wrote 13 books of the Bible and that John Quincy Adams was perhaps the most moral president we have ever had).

For your general enjoyment, here is, in no particular order, a list of things that I have learned this year:

1. It is harder than you think to stay in touch with friends from high school.

2. Sometimes people you've only known for eight months become your family away from your family.

3. Living with someone else takes adjusting. You have to learn how to come together in just the right way so that you are both happy. When it happens, you are grateful, when it doesn't, your life becomes awkward.

4. Sometimes the best plans are the ones that change when you least want them to.

5. You know that you have someone special when he drives around a parking lot for 30 minutes waiting for a parking spot just so you can go to a museum.

6. There is nothing like a good movie watched late at night when you should be asleep to encourage bonding between roommates.

7. You know when you spend a lot of time with people when you start sounding like them.

8. Become friends with international students if you want to meet some of the nicest people on campus.

9. Family is really important and every moment you can spend with them should be highly valued.

10. There is no time like the present to be forced into considering the future.

11. Grades are not everything. If you mess up, so what? Get on with it and do better next time.

12. No matter what happens, no matter how busy you are, there is always time for walking around the pond and taking random dance breaks.

13. Sometimes, you just have to eat in the cafeteria. Get used to it.

14. Power outages are fun while they last, but once they are over, it is back to reality.

15. Don't ever think that you know what is coming next...God's plans for your life are definitely not what you have in mind for yourself.

16. Developing a hobby or two is very important. You have to make time for yourself.

17. Having no money is a fact of life. When you get it, use it well.

18. There is nothing like an unexpected letter, note or email to brighten your day.

19. If you think it's windy now, wait until tomorrow.

20. Never go to Walmart on an empty stomach.

If you read all of that list, I have to admit that I'm impressed. I think this post may have been a little long, but hey, there is a lot of learning involved in this life of mine.

Walk the Line

Courtney is watching Walk the Line right now. I think it's a pretty good movie over all, but a little long. Like any good movie that has a romance even remotely implemented, there are some great lines.

Better than any of the lines, though, is the song "Ring of Fire." I love love love that song, and the music that accompanies it. Quite possibly my favorite song in the movie is "I Walk the Line." I may have forgotten about it at first, but upon further consideration, it replaces "Ring of Fire."

My cousin Courtney likes the song "Jackson," and if memory serves me correctly, she does a mean rendition of it. It's pretty awesome. :)


That's all for tonight. I just wanted to share those thoughts and encourage everyone to check out the movie.

Confession

Whenever I don't do as well as I wanted to on something I've written that I feel is pretty darn good, I feel horrible. Horrible. This feeling, for most people, is reserved for really traumatic events, events that stick with you through the entire day, and sometimes even longer. This is the way I feel when I get a paper back with something that declares my writing to be sub-par.

Many people would say that I am overreacting, and, if I were anyone else, if this were anything else, they would stand basking in the light of their correctness. However, for me, this response is not overreacting, but a completely rational, completely natural response.

When I write, I almost without exception pour myself into my work. Nearly every word is used with a purpose, every sentence and paragraph considered. Writing is my passion, and I feel that it is deserving of all the attention that I lavish upon it. This is the reason that when I get a grade or comment on writing that makes all my work for naught, I feel horrible.

This post is not so much a compliant about a grade that, in all fairness, I shouldn't be too broken up about, but is instead an explanation of why something so small as a grade can make me feel so awful. It may not make sense to anyone else, but to me, there can be no other way of life. I have to write, and it has to matter to me.