I’m one week into university life. Well, university life from a non-traditional student’s point of view, anyway (since I don’t live in a dorm room, belong to a sorority, or relate to ANY stories about partying all night and then having to roll out of bed at the crack of noon to hurry and get to class). How can I best describe my experience thus far?
I. Love. It. !!!!!!
From the shuttle drivers in the morning who are kind and often funny, to the beautiful campus, to every single class, I am just in love with this new experience.
Where professors are concerned, I feel like I hit the jackpot. All four women are enthusiastic and passionate about the subjects they teach, and that makes each class exciting and interesting. I’m eager to walk five-million miles across campus each day to hear them speak and to participate in the great discussions they start.
Truly, I am in a sea of youthfulness. I say things that date me, like “June Cleaver” in my Race and Gender class, while some around me go, “Who?” I feel a little giddy when I notice another mature student on campus, and I really think we should come up with a secret wave, like motorcyclists have. “Hey buddy, they’ll be old like us one day, too. Just hang in there and try not to visibly gasp when you realize the 19-year-old sitting beside you is about to graduate while we still have 52 years to go.” Something like that.
Seriously, I really am in love with this. (And yes, even if I had been in the right math class and stayed, I’d still love the experience as a whole. Honest.) It’s about time, right? Funny thing is, I’m totally on a FINISH THIS challenge, and last night at my Women’s Leadership meeting, the big picture stretch yourself goal for my personality type is FINISH SOMETHING. Indeed I shall!
In many ways, I am still trying to find my footing, a good balance for studying, homework, classes, thinking, working, sleeping, etc., but it’s coming together nicely. I am simply enjoying this journey, diving into my subjects, immersing myself in all kinds of possibility.
And now I have to get back to it. But first: if the husband can do this to our living room -
- then I can do this to our dining room. Oh yeah!
“Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.” -Henry van Dyke
Well, technically, she stole it. Bygones.
Hailey loves her spatula, but she’s not the biggest fan of me and my camera.
She’s also not a fan of being still for more than two seconds. Thankfully, if I ever had thoughts of being a pet photographer, she’d remind me what a bad idea that is.
We often ask her what she’s cooking us, but she finds the spatula itself tasty enough.
If we’re keeping track, and I’m not – honest! – the theft of the spatula brings her tally to, oh, I don’t know…way too much of my stuff! In one year, she has chewed up:
- a Bible
- two pairs of shoes
- an electric blanket (well, to be fair, just the cord)
- a candle
- a million stuffed toys (to begin with, they weren’t hers)
- several books
- Kleenex boxes
- one potholder
- several DVD movie cases
- pens
- hair ties
- and on and on and on…
But when you see a dog cuddling with a spatula, you just can’t help but to forgive her ONE. MORE. TIME.
Photo by The Husband
If you give a dog a spatula, she won’t want it anyway. There’s no fun in not stealing it first!
This weekend, the husband and I received this adorable finger puppet – an elephant (Africa!) – from one of our friends. I love receiving random gifts out of the blue. Thank you, Alexis!
As you might recall (or be learning for the first time), Radical Change is my theme for 2012. How it manifests as a whole is yet to be seen, but so far I’ve started (returned to) school at University of Colorado, entered into a Women’s Leadership program, and now today, a radical haircut.
Before
I decided somewhere around November last year that I wanted to kick off the new year with donating my hair and having a fresh look. By the time the end of December rolled around, I wasn’t quite as sure I wanted to cut so much hair after all. I waffled, unsure, and so I canceled the hair appointment I had initially set up with a friend. (I was also under the impression I didn’t have quite enough hair yet, or rather, enough not to have to get a pixie cut, which SO does not look good on me.) But the truth is, I felt both bad about backing out of my plan (fear – again!) and my hair was driving me crazy.
When you have long hair like mine that is thick and full of wave and curl, it’s not easy to manage. It’s pretty, I’ll agree, but it’s A LOT of work. And it knots up so easily and quickly here in windy Colorado. Frankly, I was tired of having to spend upwards of 20 minutes getting all the snarls out of my hair BEFORE I could even begin the styling process. So…chop-chop time!
It is unfortunate this picture didn’t come out so great, but that’s my stylist
(another friend) holding 10 inches of my hair.
It’s just hair. It grows back. Except, for many it’s not JUST hair and it won’t grow back – maybe not now, maybe never. My hair grows quickly enough (fun photo project of my hair growth? ha!) so no matter if I don’t like a shorter cut, it wouldn’t matter. It would grow back, and in the meantime, my hair will have gone to help others in some way. I like that.
Me and Laura after the radical haircut!
I didn’t feel an ounce of regret upon doing this today. In fact, I feel light and happy! I know my hair will help others in some way, and when I came home and showered, it took so much less time and product to wash, condition, dry, and style my hair. It’ll take me a little time to get used to this change, and I think my hair is currently in shock, but I am quite happy about it.
The change! I have to admit, with it being this length, I have found myself already
thinking about coloring again. Ah, old addictions die hard.
When you’ve entered a year embracing and looking for ways to radically change your life (and that isn’t to say your life is bad, only that you are ready to make it all that it really can be), you never know how it might look. It could be weight loss, a haircut, going back to school, changing jobs, leaving bad relationships, or whatever. But the idea that you are open to it makes it exciting, and you begin to look forward to whatever might happen each day. A haircut for me might not change much about my life, but it makes a difference all the same, in so many ways.
“If nothing ever changed, there’d be no butterflies.” -Author Unknown
Conversation with eldest -
Me: I delivered to your complex tonight and was hoping to see you. Alas, then I realized you moved and then I was sad.
Him: Oh yeah? Well, I had a dream just now that you died and I was sad. I win.
Me: Wow. Well, were you JUST sad, or did you throw ashes on yourself, tear your hair and clothing, and mourn for 40 days?
Him: I mourned for 50. Actually, I was in class and I just started wailing and I got up to leave and I just collapsed, so I dragged myself into the hallway where I continued to make a scene. It was a pretty terrible.
Me: I appreciate that. You’re the best!
Him: …
Me: What?
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Because I have a tendency to use things until they practically fall apart (jeans, shoes, socks), I just realized I have been missing out. I bought new socks and oh my goodness, the comfort! How did I not know? Sadly, I will forget in a few months and will wear them until they have holes, and then one day I will buy new socks, and I’ll be all like, “Holy dancing crocodiles! New socks are awesome!”
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I am seriously sleeping well lately. I totally attribute this to dropping the coffee scene. I mean, I go to bed…and then I fall asleep! And then I sleep pretty much straight through the night. SOLID. I am feeling much, much better all day. No crashing, no downward mood shifts around 2:00 in the afternoon, etc. Whenever I am tempted to have a cup, I remind myself how much better I feel, and then I have water or juice instead.
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Aside from the math fiasco on the first day of school (well, my only so far), I am already in love with my Race and Gender class (Women’s and Ethnic studies, my minor) and my English class. Monday I will start my geography class (anyone who knows me knows how awesome I am in this subject: “Africa is right over here.” *dramatic window-washing hand movement*) and my social psychology class, which is my replacement for the math class. (I’ll begin math again in the fall.) I’m really looking forward to seeing what the semester is going to hold for both of those. Like I said before, lots of reading and writing this semester. I’m cool wit it.
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I went on a delivery Thursday night to a far out (not as in groovy, but far away) home, and when I got where I thought I was supposed to be, the gentleman answered the door, took the credit card slip to sign it, and then asked me who I was. I was holding a pizza bag and was clearly in uniform, but I guess he missed that part. “Ummm…” And then he said, pen poised over the slip, “Did I order pizza? Oh, no, I didn’t.” And then I realized I was at the wrong house. (Trust me here: Sooooo many addresses aren’t clearly marked, so I feel like I’m playing a game of deduction sometimes, wherein it seems like it should be the right house because it happens to fall between other houses that seem like the right addresses. Usually, I’m right. Only sometimes do I get it wrong.) Turns out, I was on the wrong road. WAY too many streets around here have the same name, with only that slight variation of Lane or Drive. I was also in the wrong neighborhood. But still, all I can think of is, who got it more wrong – me or him?
“We are each gifted in a unique and important way. It is our privilege and our adventure to discover our own special light.” -Evelyn Dunbar
(Image captured at the Helm Wedding, shot this past summer.)
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bella Angela!!! Always so bella
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Sharon - YOU ROCK! And I feel all of those things, It was like it was me talking and walking there with you. I LOVE BEING a MATURE STUDENT AT SCHOOL! I don’t fit into the younger crowd, but I don’t want to. I have PROF”S who do care, stop to chat about our lives outside of school, and class. I love working till I am exhausted, and have to get up early and drive a paper in so it would be penalized. AT least I am creating the new phase of the old me!
Keep going girl. I will hold your hand through it…
<3 )