little victories

 

This semester has been hard. Really, really hard. The (kind of) comforting thing has been that most of my friends here are in the same boat – none of us can believe how difficult and serious this semester has been, but we’re all getting through it together. I’ve never had the luck to share my classes with friends or get to know the people in my classes really well until this semester, and I love every second of it. As one of my friends said to me last night, I feel comfortable talking to any one of the students in my classes – kind of like high school, but without the crappy drama!

my friend Marguerite and I on the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Cruise earlier in the semester.

Even though this semester has been really intense, not always in a good way, I’ve been really lucky to have my friends by my side. It makes such a difference to have a support group there and to be able to compare notes with friends about what we’re going through in our lives – especially being seniors this year. This week has been horribly unproductive, work-wise, for me, but I’ve had a lot of fun with my social life and it’s starting to be time to buckle down and get my crap together.

I was only mildly productive today but I did want to share one last thing. Today I figured out how to make the Windows Media Player controls appear in my taskbar, even though it’s not technically supported in Windows Media Player 12 running on Windows 7. But I made it work!! It was a small victory, but it made me feel awesome! I conquered that. So, that was the most productive part of my morning. Ha. I’ve also started using Pidgin and now feel like I’m getting a nice fresh start with that program. Sometimes, change is nice!

So I guess in conclusion, good luck to anyone reading this who is finishing up their semester. Don’t forget about all of the people who are there to support you when the going gets rough – and cut yourself some slack once in awhile! :)

summer lovin’

Last weekend I sort of had my last real days of summer. I mean, yeah, it’s still summer. But life and responsibilities and SCHOOL all start very very soon and so I decided to call those days my last and start looking forward to the fall semester.

This post is a pretty personal one for me – I had a fantastic summer and learned a lot about myself and others, and I don’t want to forget that. I have a few fun fall posts coming up soon but I’d like to close out the summer with this!

..I had a truly amazing summer. I made so many new friends, was constantly surrounded by wonderful people at all of my jobs, and got in a lot of time hanging out with friends from home. It’s been long and not so long, bumpy but smooth, a fun and serious summer. Dorky, maybe. But so true. I learned how to be happy and healthy and independent this summer.

For 3 years, I was with someone who was my rock. He was my pillar, and, a bit unfairly, the person I almost solely depended on for my happiness. Things didn’t work out and it has been so difficult to realize that and deal with it – there wasn’t any one defining thing that pushed either of us away from each other, which makes it harder in my opinion.

I also lived with two very close friends for two years in an apartment until this summer. Unfortunately, the living situation we were in did not bring out the best in any of our personalities and at the end of 2009 I decided to apply for the Learning Assistant position I have now and move back onto campus for my final year. The perks for this job are great (free housing!) but I also decided it was time for my next challenge. I really needed to get out of the negative environment we had created and start fresh. Meeting new people and trying new things is part of that.

This summer has slowly rebuilt my happiness with myself, and my respect and love for the people who surround me every day of my life. I learned that living alone does not have to be lonely – I just had to look for and make the opportunities to bring people into my life who could remedy that loneliness. Working 3 jobs this summer and living alone in a mostly-empty dorm could have been an awful, depressing experience. But instead it was warm, exciting, fun and helped me meet and get closer to some of my favorite people right now!

Self-fulfillment and actualization is a great theme to start the year on. Some links I really like on these topics:

11 things to do (and not do) when you’re burned out
You Have Not Walked In Their Shoes
Do What Makes You Happy
2 Ways You Think Yourself Unhappy (and 10 Things to Do About It)
16 First Steps to Creating The Life You Want From Some of the World's Best Bloggers
Bruce Mao's Incomplete Manifesto for Growth
How To Turn A Creative Brainstorm Into A Completed Project

insanely crazy busy day

In the midst of all this chaos (workshop planning, working 2.5 jobs, and trying to manage 2 courses) I was replying to a friend’s post on my Facebook wall and it hit me:

I am talking to a girl who lives in England, who I met over a year ago. A girl who I was best friends with for 4 days in our adorable little hostel in Portland, OR after I took a roadtrip with an almost complete stranger across the USA. A girl who I haven’t seen in almost a year now (more than a year?), who has nothing other than the thread of our shared hostel experience (and bunk beds!) connecting us.

Isn’t that amazing? I am so lucky to meet the people I have so far.

Now back to my reply :).

happy 2010

Good riddance to 2009 – it was a decent year (I did study abroad after all!) but other than that, it was rough and crummy in my opinion.

Some highlights (the good) from 2009:

• Taking one of the best graphic design courses I’ve taken yet! (Graphic Design for Corporate Identity) and getting my first official design “job” (Opus Igor freelance work)
• Meeting new people – friends of friends, CEA Sevilla, road trip buddies, Portland hostel roommates. It was a good year for new faces.
• Reconnecting with old friends and with family. Studying abroad really made me appreciate how important family and friends are, and I was really lucky to be able to keep up old friendships and talk with family more than ever when I needed it most.
• TRAVEL. Visiting my sister, roommate, and 2 good friends while they all spent the summer in Boston. Then, seeing more of the US on a road trip than most people get to see in their lives. It was fantastic and beautiful, and I hope I get to do something like that many times more in my life. And the last bit of travel in 2009 – Spain. SPAIN. Not to mention all the traveling I did while in Spain, and how lucky I was that my mom and my boyfriend both visited me. It was the best experience I’ve had in my life, and I intend to never forget it!

ROAD TRIP Summer 2009

BOSTON Summer 2009

SPAIN Fall 2009

PORTUGAL September 2009

SWITZERLAND (Interlaken) October 2009

ITALY (Florence & Rome) October/November 2009

Here’s to a happier, healthier, more prosperous new year! :)

in a funk

It seems that all of us here are officially in a funk. The one month left marker passed by without much fanfare last week – I remember that the halfway mark was sometime immediately after our Ronda daytrip, and everyone couldn’t bear to think about it. Although it definitely still feels that way, we’re at a weird point in our experience.

We’re getting so close to leaving that we can count the number of weekends left on only a few fingers, and it’s depressing. At the same time, the midterm week blues are only just starting to wear off, but finals week wear and tear is already beginning. None of us want to leave Sevilla but we’re starting to think about packing and seeing our families and what the first thing we’ll do when we get back is. I’m starting to think about writing rent checks again, fixing my spring semester schedule, and cleaning my room at home. It’s a very strange mix of emotions.

Anyway, that’s what’s been going on lately. A lot of us are feeling a strange mix of homesickness and a desire to never leave Sevilla, as unrealistic as that is. It’s dramatic, but none of us will have this exact experience again with all of us together, here, hanging out, traveling throughout Europe and Spain and just being together at this point in our lives. Of course part of the appeal at first was that it’d be a finite experience. We’re being forced to come to terms with that part of the agreement now, and it is not too pleasant.

Enough depression talk now. Fortunately, all of this drabble means that we’re all dedicated to making this the best next few weeks that we can! This Thursday, CEA is hosting us at a restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner. The email told us to “dress up” – I can’t wait! It’s strange because I’m sitting here in Starbucks, drinking from a red Christmas-themed cup, listening to Christmas carols, and looking across the street at a giant Christmas Nativity scene market next to the Cathedral. All of the decorations have jumped straight to Christmas with no fall in between, because there’s no Thanksgiving here – so I don’t even feel like it’s the Thanksgiving time of year. But I still can’t wait! :)