The Home Stretch

Stats:

thesis: 100% complete!
pages: 64
words: 15,000
autobiography: 5,500 words
posts on my blog: 100!
mood: elated
reading: fluffy fiction!
highlights: soccer, THESIS, celebratory treats!

Weekly Update:

This morning, I turned in my thesis project that I've been working so hard on all semester!! I am so pleased with the overall result. It feels so good! The triumph is exhilarating. I celebrated with some good ole' Jamba Juice and a bagel. I still have a few assignments to finish in other classes before I can apply for graduation, but I am in the HOME STRETCH!!! I'm starting to feel really really excited, but I'll be so glad when it's all over.
(Coincidentally, this is also my 100th post on this blog! Does the excitement ever end???)

I love my job

I don't normally talk about my work, and I have reasons for that, but I think it'll be alright to forego that rule this once. One of the best tasks I get to do for work is search for images for use in course materials (think background slides, etc.) Sometimes, (on days like today) I feel like I am getting paid to fuel my wanderlust. Today I was introduced to several new websites for finding free stock-images! There were so many beautiful visuals. My favorite so far is called UnSplash and it is a serious load of eye candy (and not like attractive men or anything like that) for an artist/dreamer/creator like me.  

I am a Runner!

After playing soccer in the park last week, I suddenly possessed the urge to run... as in to start running. On a regular basis. Why? Have I ever run in my life? Do I enjoy long-distance running? Do I like torturing myself? Do I like feeling sore? Do I like ripping my lungs out of my chest? No. I want to run because I love soccer and I want to get better at it. Call me crazy; I won't be offended, because I am (crazy, not offended). My first interval run was a little pathetic as far as I was concerned. I did 5 intervals of 1 minute running with 3 minutes walking before I gave up and walked the rest of the way home from the park.

Jake's mom mentioned that they were all running a 5K in May because Joe's girlfriend Kaylee has never run one before (I haven't either, but I didn't mention it.) A 5K, huh? How much is a 5K? 3.1 miles. 3.1 miles? I could do that... So I put the worm in my dad's ear to see if he would do it with me; at first, he said no, but after a couple days of thinking about it, he caved. 

And now, me and my dad are training for a 5K together. Say whattt??? Even I am still pretty stoked about the whole thing. We've been using the Couch to 5K plan and the first week of interval-runs we've done has been great so far! I ain't even tired (yet)! Really though, it feels really great to get active again. I've spent the last couple years locked away in my room, chained to my desk slaving over academic drudgery (speaking of which, big update coming soon!). But I'm getting to a point where I can go out and play hard without feeling too guilty. It's pretty awesome!

Spring Break!

 As I'm sure you can imagine, my schedule usually gets a little messed up when Jake comes to town, but he's gone again, so I should be posting more regularly until summer. We had an AWESOME week together, talking over coffee, watching movies (and analyzing character development!), song-writing, walking, playing frisbee, and hanging out with our respective families. It was a good week, well-spent, but not nearly long enough. It never is.

Where the Magic Happens

Earlier this week, I had the privilege of seeing where the "magic" happens when Jake and Dave write music. They showed me their space, taught me some lingo, and I got to witness the creation of a song from beginning to mid-recording. (I didn't get to see the whole process due to the lateness of the hour and the long drive home, but that's okay.) And I even got to use some of my literary expertise with the lyrics. They used my suggestions!!!!!

Biggest takeaway: Jake is one hot musician. There's a lot more that goes into writing and recording a song than I thought there was!

Out and About

Stats:

time until Jake gets home: < 5 hours!
days Jake will be here: 10!
thesis: 90% complete!
walks with Mom this week: 5
nights away from home: 5
feeling: better
learning: not to worry about the future too much
highlights: tea party, watching Thumblina, soccer



Weekly Update:

Since the disappointment I was suffering on Monday, my week has gotten better (as I knew it would). Jake gets in tonight, which I am very excited about. He'll be here all week for spring break. And I've made a lot of progress on my Thesis! I am wrapping up the final chapter today and over the next two weeks, I'll be putting it all together in one document and editing it for consistency! I am so excited! The hard part is done and it's all coasting from here.

I also got out of the house a lot this week: walks with mom, college group frisbee, pick-up soccer in the park... It's great to be active again. Yesterday, I went to the park for a game of pick-up soccer--nothing too competitive, just for fun. We didn't have enough people for a full game, but we kicked the ball around and played the soccer version of "monkey in the middle." I found the group through meetups.com and at first I was a little worried that they might be creepy (since you never know with people you meet on the internet), but they were all really friendly and encouraging, even though they were clearly more experienced than I.

$5 to France

Lately, I've been really interested in visiting France, which may or may not have something to do with the fact that Jake is visiting the country this summer and I am so so jealous that he gets to have some big travel adventures before I do. But I am not going to just sit here and watch him have all the fun!

One thing I see pretty often on Pinterest (links to my homepage) is the $5 Jar Challenge: Every time a $5 bill comes into your possession, instead of spending it, put it in a jar until you have enough to buy whatever special thing you happen to be saving for.

As you've probably guessed by now, I am doing the $5 Jar to save up for a trip to France someday. (Perhaps this way, it will come a lot sooner than "someday"!) I've been working on it since Christmas and so far I've saved up about $200 Since my spending is primarily cash-based a lot of $5 bills come through my hands (meaning I save more!).

I am going to France, $5 at a time. 

Bum Monday

Mondays are typically difficult enough as it is, but today, I also found out that the hip hop class I signed up for with the Community center is canceled due to low enrollment (although they did refund my money back; I'll probably credit it toward another class) and I heard back from Disney and I was not selected for an interview for the Communications internship I applied for. I'm trying to maintain a positive attitude, but sometimes, especially on days like today, it's really hard. =/

Too Old for Tea Parties?

Fact: Ladies are never too old for tea parties!

 I'm not usually one to throw birthday parties, but this year, I decided to throw a little tea party to celebrate my 19th birthday! I spent about a week and a half planning out all the details from table settings to menu to a special classical music playlist. I had such a lovely time, both putting it together and enjoying the company of my friends over afternoon tea. Definitely a memorable experience and probably one of my favorite birthday celebrations thus far! Enjoy the beautiful photos from a beautiful day:

Beautiful Things

I have a confession to make, lately, I've been floundering a little bit with a sense of aimlessness. When I wrote my autobiography for school, I was thinking a lot about purpose, particularly the journey of discovering my purpose. But when I looked back over the purpose statements I had written during my years of affiliation with CollegePlus (as a student, since I am now employed with them.), none of those statements resonated with me. My latest ideas, though not a written statement, toyed with the idea of helping girls understand their value. Maybe my purpose, I thought, is to use my struggle with self-esteem to help other girls going through the same thing. It seemed to fit, since I have the opportunity to mentor freshmen girls on Wednesday nights and helping out at the youth group is one of the most satisfying ministries I've had the pleasure to participate in.

And yet, something wasn't quite right.

At the back of my mind was the niggling thought that this wasn't it. I couldn't see myself advocating this message for years to come. I'm not the next "Beth Moore" or motivational speaker. I couldn't see myself devoting my life to this "cause." Of course it is a very worthy endeavor and there are so many girls who need to hear such a message, but just like God wasn't my Healer when I wanted to tell people about God being "the Ultimate Healer" (my very first purpose statement), somehow I didn't believe that talking about self-worth was my primary message. So what was it?

The truth is, I didn't really know. And when I finally realized this (literally in the last week), I freaked out a little. For a tiny moment, I felt so lost. What am I supposed to do?

Then today, over tea, I got a fresh perspective on it when a friend of mine asked the table, "What are you passionate about?" The question took a career-spin on it as people went around talking about what was most important to them--teaching, being a doctor, friends, Mom, history... Of course when it got through to me, I said, "I am passionate about art." That is a no-brainer, I've known that about myself for a long time. But as I kept talking about it, I realized that art was a narrow definition for what I am passionate about. It is so much more than art.

I am passionate about making beautiful things.

Art, yes. Writing, of course; that is my major after all. But it's also so much more than that. It's moments and memories and highlights and photographs and table settings and birthday cakes and interior design and conversations.

When I said, "It's so beautiful!!!" for probably the tenth time today, my dad pointed out, "That's been your catchphrase lately." I am drawn to beautiful things, and I think on some level everyone is. Why else do we have such an image-obsessed culture? But I think I am even more drawn to creating beautiful things and making the world around me a more beautiful place for myself and for others.

I may not change the world, ever. But you know what? I can help someone else see the world differently by making it more beautiful. And that is something my soul gets excited about! That is something I will do my entire life no matter where I end up in the world or how old I get. And that is what I believe my purpose is because I may not ever become a writer or an editor or a teacher or [insert whatever career here] but I will always be an artist and I will always love beautiful things.

Stats:

days until tea party: 1
days until Jake comes back: 7
movies watched: 3
dialogues worked: 9
hours worked: 14
thesis: 82% complete
mood: varies
baking: cookies, scones, and cake
learning: diplomacy


Weekly Update:

As I was thinking about what I've done this week, I was having trouble coming up with anything. It's been a bit of a tough week. Let's just say, I worked a lot of hours and watched a lot of movies! I've been on a movie kick recently because it gives me a chance to escape and not think for awhile. I think it also helps keep my mind off Jake's absence; but he will be home soon. Last night we watched the award winning Hugo Cabret and it was artistically excellent on all counts. 

My thesis is swiftly wrapping up. My teacher enjoyed my fourth chapter and said it even inspired her to write her own autobiography! This week, I'll be writing the fifth and final chapter discussing the results of the study. Then I'll have a few weeks to put all the chapters together and proof for consistency and grammatical errors. I am so excited that the end is so close, but at the same time, I'm a little daunted by the "what's next?" question everyone keeps asking me. I will let the future worry about itself for now and focus on what's before me. 

eXPerience curating

I know I've posted a few book reviews lately. Here's another!

Awhile back, I came across Joel Zaslofsky's blog Value of Simple. What first intrigued me was his self-explorative tool, the Personal User Guide, but I was quickly sucked in by his ideas for living more simply. Now, he's coming out with a book Experience Curating. Since I'm an email subscriber, I got a sneak peak at some of the content, and It. Is. Awesome! Curating has roots in the Dewey decimal system, and of course museums, but Zaslofsky talks about curating in terms of experience. We are overwhelmed with information day to day, but what's the point if there's no way to filter through that information quickly so you can use it and make it available to others? Whether it's an online article, a book you read, a movie you watched, a restaurant you ate at, or a story your heard, how can one organize it so that the resources and experiences available to us can be made available to others? Joel's answer: Experience Curating!

Joel uses spreadsheets. He has a spreadsheet for everything which he can access virtually anywhere as long as he has internet access. He even used a spreadsheet to name his child!! Crazy right? I've found that spreadsheets are hard for me to integrate into my daily habits, but I've found them to be really useful for organizing scholarships, keeping track of my checking account, queuing up blog posts, and most recently, collecting responses for my survey! My enthusiasm for spreadsheets has definitely increased since Joel introduced them to me (and additionally, we use them all the time at work so I've been getting tons of practice); but of course this system is all about customizing it to suit your needs and goals and the things YOU want to keep track of and share. Maybe a bit of a radical concept that definitely requires a little discipline to implement, but his writing style is easy to grasp and the potential benefits far outweigh the initial effort of getting started.

*UPDATE* You know what's even cooler? Joel is offering the e-version of his book for free on Amazon through Saturday! Check it out!

The Best Love Story of All (long)

Circa 2009

Jake's family has been somehow connected to ours for over 12 years. His mom, whom I affectionately called  (and still call)"Miss Jessica," taught my Sunday School class when I was six years old. Since her youngest son Joe was also in the class, she moved up every year with us and I grew under her tutelage. To be truthful, I don't actually remember when Jake first came on my radar, since he was older than me.

It could have been our sudden frequent exposure to the Coffin's three children, for reasons unbeknownst to me at the time. Mom and Dad constantly took us over to their house to play while the adults all went off to dinner. Cam and I weren't complaining though; we loved having playmates. We'd play hide-and-go seek in the house or huckle-buckle-bean-stalk or we'd watch veggietales while feasting on the hugest batches of popcorn we'd ever seen.

But I believe it was Fish Tales-- a cute little children's skit in which we both had the lead parts and the characters were in constant competition with one another. (Actually, the majority of our childhood friendship consisted of competition, most of which I think I initiated.) On one particular day while practicing the script my character had the parenthetical direction "lovingly" written before the line and somewhere deep in my 11-year-old mind I thought something along the lines of, "well I might as well start now!" Thus began a massive and enduring crush that lasted three and a half straight years. I was "madly in love" with Jake Coffin (secretly, of course!).