the noblest profession

1. drove home today--it's very cold and wintry here, but i'm glad to be around my family. i'm staying with my sister tonight and heading to my house tomorrow. no classes monday--booyah!
2. on that note, however, i have a lot of work to do for this upcoming week and i'm busy for most of it too. oh well, i'll figure it out!
3. note the cheerful mood. despite all this madness going on, i'm just happy. i'm trying to balance everything and everyone and so far it's working itself out. this is a nice feeling. 

tonight, i have to talk about teaching. there are many honorable and helping professions available in this day and age. but i am making the argument that teaching always was and always will be the noblest profession. think about it--how else has everything in this world been transmitted except through the sharing of knowledge. knowledge is such a sacred thing. that may have been almost the nerdiest thing i've ever said (but hey, being nerdy is just what i do, right?) but it's so true. this civilization would not have progressed past day one without knowledge and those to pass on the flame. literally. it was said that perseus was punished by the gods for stealing fire because it was knowledge worthy of the gods. this knowledge of fire is symbolic to me that knowledge is like fire--meant to be passed among people and inspire a burning within an individual that lasts a lifetime. i have a personal reason to support education and teachers like i do, but i am grateful for the amazing teachers i have had over the years and i hope to make a difference in someone's life the way they all touched thousands of youth. so a teacher has 6 or 5 classes per year, each class with 25 students, and 30 years teaching. that's 4500 or 3750 students over the course of a career of teaching (i think, hopefully my math teacher taught me well). that's how many lives were shaped and changed in some way. i can't fully express my loyalty to teaching and firm belief that great teachers make a tremendous difference in this world.

blah blah blah

1. well i still hate all this rain but at least it made my hair curly. 
2. dropped off apartment applications and had yummy lunch and dinner with cool people.
3. going out tonight. let's go. 

 that's all i hear--blah blah blah. people come to me, talking and telling me stuff, and i just hear blah blah blah. it's all like mexican to me now (that was a dig at george bush, not a serious remark). but really, what do i think? what do i do? i don't even know. no one knows anything i'm pretty sure. side note: i just started to watch the bad romance video and had to turn it off--way too weird. i just want to be me. so that's what i'm going to do. let's fly.

YAY

1. got the news--going to florida this summer to work with the uber-premier researcher in my field!!!!!!!!!! can you tell i'm excited? i've been waiting for this news for months. i couldn't be MORE excited. YAY! "ms. phd" has officially made her entrance.
2. today started out not so great--has become awesome! it's the start of my four day weekend, half of which will be spent with my friends and half with my family.
3. it's high time i bought red pumps. i am rewarding myself...for being awesome!

i love my friends, i just want to start off with that. and i love my school, just wanted to add that. and i love four day weekends. booyah. tonight i just want to talk about my future. i'm excited! you don't know how long i've been waiting to have definite plans! and they still aren't even that definite, i just now know where i will be. this is a huge relief. and my mentor told me today that working in this lab could make me a shoe-in for grad school--omfg, kill me now! so exciting. so yeah, i'm just excited and happy and nervous and so ready for it to be summer! and while i have no idea what will happen between now and then or between this summer and next, all of a sudden i don't care! the change i have been grabbing at for months has finally come! there are a lot of exclamation points in this post, i know, but they are warranted. and i feel like i can take stuff on now, better than i was able to before. this feeling will probably only last until i have to start writing the two papers due next week--then school will feel impossible. but maybe perfection isn't what it's all about (shocker, right, haha). and my suitemate just told me (albeit in a different context) hey, if you know what you want, if you know what you want--go for it. all i have to say to that is hell yeah. bring it on.

the myth

1. busy day. contrary to what some may think, i do not have tea parties, eat truffles, and get fanned by sexy boys with palm fronds all day. nor do i sit on the beach in bora bora. i do homework and go to meetings and sometimes the gym. i don't just...do nothing, unfortunately.
2. had dinner with a friend (two dinners?) and ran for treasurer of an honor society but didn't get it (totally not for a legit reason either). so i ran for social chair and got that--of course. so now i get to spend money instead of keep track of it--yay!
3. it's one of those days--not much i want to talk about on this blog tonight. and nothing really interesting happened. i wore open-toed shoes when there was snow on the ground. typical, i know.

 i want to talk about greek mythology. i believe in the greek myths. is that weird? am i the only person who actually believes those stories in these modern times? because i know the greeks and romans believed the stories, but that's different. i just have always been fascinated with magic and mythology and truth and untruth (please, see previous posts). but ever since i was taught greek mythology (6th grade, favorite language arts teacher eva!) i have believed in it. they (the greeks and romans) just made it seem so real! the gods and goddesses roamed the mortal realm and slept with people, killed people, ran away with people, did all this cool stuff. it makes it seem so much more realistic if the god/goddess one worships acts like a mortal. because then it turns into human behavior in people who may have just been defied for lineage or personal valor. but what am i saying? i think that the gods and goddesses really were immortal and deities; they just interfered in mortal affairs because they could. the stories captivate me and seem to believable and realistic. and why would anyone not want to believe the "myths?" it's comforting to think that even gods and goddesses can mess up too. now this is turning into a religious discussion, but people questioned the actions of gods and goddesses--like seriously questioned them. they may have been punished for that questioning but did so all the same. i feel like it's so taboo nowadays to question the logic of one's religious deity. like, if the gods and goddesses made mistakes (which they did, obviously) then why can't it be an acceptable thought that modern (?) deities can make mistakes? i think questioning is healthy, but i also think the greek myths are just so cool and interesting and great stories--so i believe them. and i believe in the people involved in the myths.

the new cruelest month

1. you know, went to class (why, again? the system makes me), acted all studious and stuff. didn't mind my classes today actually--they were all relatively interesting. 
2. it rained here today. i hate rain and college. they don't mix well at all. bookbag, purse, water bottle, umbrella, leather jacket, the frustrations never end. 
3. I GOT A TICKET!!!!!!!!! (most of you will know for what, but i don't want to identify myself much either, so i won't say. but YAY!!!!!)

 so this post is prompted by a semi-serious discussion today about how much february sucks. april is not the cruelest month, ts eliot. okay, so it may be in some poetic sense, but february is the worst month. i think this is a general consensus too, unless your birthday is during february or something. reasons why i make this assertion: 1) valentine's day 2) weather 3) groundhog day 4) lack of sports (sometimes). okay, so that's all i can think of right now, but these are significant. valentine's day. really!? obviously it was invented by a guy so that they can only have to act like they care about mushy gushy love crap one day out of the year. otherwise, they would be expected to show affection 24/7/365--yeah, right. so a day was invented so that guys could have it all or nothing--all on valentine's day and nothing the rest of the year. how cheap. and if you're single *ahem* then it really sucks. like come on, it's just an excuse to get drunk and forget about all your happy couple friends (sorry parents, it's true). like really, do you want me to drink all day and eat a box of chocolates that my empathetic single girl friend bought me? didn't think so--valentine's day sucks. the weather, oh gracious. the weather of february is generally sleety/gray/cold. no snow, no sunshine, just an unhappy medium. i hate weather in february. it's just asking for everyone to have SAD (seasonal affective disorder) and hate their lives. like i said earlier, rain in college makes me want to stay in bed and skip class (not that i ever do). so come on, weather gods, make me motivated to go to class...please? groundhog day is related to weather. and of course, today the stupid groundhog saw his shadow. what the hell, man?! come on. you know the weather gods listen to you, mister groundhog, so why not cooperate? or else i'll you down and blind or kill you (as my friend suggested). so you better watch out. and sports...it's before march madness and after bowl games--how is that a good thing? and especially right now since my team isn't doing so hot (okay, we're bad). and luckily the olympics are this year or else i might really go crazy. the x-games were pretty sick, not gonna lie, but the olympics will help me survive this february. so yeah, these are the main reasons why february sucks. basically. and i just really want it to be march. unless he comes to visit before february is over.

history

1. i've spent a lot of time lately thinking about becoming addicted to peggle. i'm not actually addicted to it yet, but i am pretty sure this is the first step. if you don't know what peggle is...don't find out! it's addicting, like i may have already made clear.
2. figured out what i want to do for spring break! now i just have to buy a ticket and get excited! i really wish i could get tan over break, but i'm almost positive that will not happen--so i might as well go somewhere cold and snowy! 
3. had five meetings today, one of which had free pizza. i spend a lot of my "free" MWF in meetings, doing schoolwork, or going to the gym. downtime is a nonexistent thing in college. but hopefully i can keep meeting new people at these meetings and class work sessions. 

 the title is pretty self-explanatory. i want to talk about history tonight. i love history; it's a strange love that came about sometime in high school, even though i always hated ap u.s.h. but i mainly love modern european history (good thing they offer that concentration at my school), especially WWII and the holocaust. morbid? maybe, but fascinating. and it's so important to look to the past while living in the present and planning for the future. i heard somewhere that history doesn't repeat itself but it sure follows some similar patterns. i think everyone should study history in some capacity as a kind of "here's what not to do" lesson. yet it's not totally fair to say people in the past screwed stuff up, or else how would civilization be where it is today? but i love that there is so much history in this world. think about it--every person who has ever lived on this planet had a personal history. relationships and events happened to each person--think about how many books that would fill! and if everyone kept a life diary...wow. so much information. but also, so much is lost and unknown, which is why it's so interesting to study and speculate about the past. there are so many mysteries that are just...not solved and may never be solved. like really, what happened to the lost colony?! i just want to know, damn it. or the aztecs, the myans, the incans. the mesopotamians, the ancient scholars and rumored texts and arts that are lost forever. what happened? that's all i want to know, but will never know about so much. frustrating, yet fascinating. and also, the history that is formed on an individual level and is usually only important to so few people, but seems massively important. like my life story seems so significant to me (i guess because i'm living it), but think about all the people who will never know about me or care about what happened in my life. history is so humbling, which is another good thing about it. there are thousands of important and influential people, but that is such a small number when one considers how many billions (trillions?) of people have lived and died. then again, it is impossible to demean all the people who have lived before me because i feel like each person is in some way responsible for where i am in my life now. i have this crazy sense of cosmic connection that i believe in--maybe i should save that for another post. anyway, i'm done contradicting myself now! a light-hearted post is in the works for one of these upcoming nights, i promise.

southern soul

1. had another day of homework and chilling. i'd like a little less homework and a little more chilling though...
2. fell on my butt in the snow (ice) right outside my dorm. i knew it was going to happen, but just kept walking. now i have a nice bruise and wet pants! oh, and i'm really glad classes before 10 am were canceled...since i don't have any classes tomorrow and everything. 
3. two long days of classes this week, then a brief trip back to the hometown for family time and all that good stuff. 

i was chatting with a friend and we were talking about the south and politics. it made me want to post about the crazy culture of the south. so here goes! first off, i am not even from the deep south. there are differences in the south--there is florida, it's barely even southern it's so touristy now; there is the deep south (the magnolia curtain and beyond); there is the bible belt; and the northern south (just what it sounds like). i'm from the northern south, but my parents are from the deep south (louisiana) and the bible belt (tennessee). but the culture of the south, from what little i have grown up with in 20 years, is irreplaceable, unforgettable--what my family likes to call southern-fried crazy. the raising i had is like a mix between southern and european. i was raised to say "yes ma'am" and "no sir" like you wouldn't believe, but i also started to drink with my family when i was old enough to hold a tiny wine glass. i feel like i was raised to be polite, but speak my mind. the consequence for bringing home a yankee? only as bad as bringing home a republican. note: not all southerners are republicans! another note: but most republicans are southerners. like i said, i was raised in a hicktown, backwoods, rebel yell kinda place. but i vote democratic and have traveled extensively. so this is turning into more of a discussion of the paradoxes present in my life growing up, but i think that's also an essence of southern culture. the web of societal norms, rules, and expectations required the utmost grace and precision to walk through. i have a deep respect for the southern culture and the southern way. i love where i am from and would have it no other way. trust me, i have issues some of the ways of thinking and living apparent down south, but i rectify those issues in my own way. and when it comes down to it, i will defend the southern culture 'til my dying day. there is a beauty and a love inherent in the ideal of southern hospitality that isn't present anywhere else in this country. this has been a subject that had proved difficult--how do i express the love i have for this place in a blog space? maybe tomorrow night will just be stories from my family, my life, my friends, my experiences that will color the issue mo' betta. for now,

oh, and my bucket list thing is to learn to speak Italian, from an Italian.