Today was a good day, and while nothing of great consequence happened, I thought I’d share.
Class in the morning, drove hall-mate to hospital to get blood work done, had lunch, etc.
After whiling away a good half an hour doing who-knows-what, I had my individual conference with my Chinese professor in which we basically sit in a room for 10 minutes and he sees that I still can’t speak Chinese. He said that he thinks my listening and speaking skills have improved, and since I’ve been feeling like a complete dunce when it comes to my beloved Zhongwen, that was a nice little boost to make me feel like maybe I’m not sucking quite as much as I’d originally thought.
I spent a little bit of time in Carpenter working on my editing project that I really need to finish in the near future (why don’t people give me deadlines? I can’t work open-ended like this….) and then headed to the Alumnae Association’s Careers in Writing in an Era of Media Turbulence panel discussion. I haven’t attended many of these panels in the past, but I really wanted to go to this one – so badly, in fact, that I got someone to cover my 4-6 shift at the library so that I could attend (and if you know how broke I currently am, then you know how significant giving up a shift is). The talk was really interesting and all of the panelists had a lot of great information. I also hounded them afterwards and asked a ridiculous number of questions and shamelessly gave out my information, but that, I have learned, is what I should be doing. The talk also opened my eyes to the fact that there are a lot more resources within the BMC community than I originally realized, so now there are a few professors who, given enough time, will groan at the sound of my name or the sight of yet another email from me asking when I can stop by their office for a little chat…
It really was great though. Even if it doesn’t lead anywhere ‘networking’-wise, I still learned a bit more about the publishing industry and what I really need to do if I want to be a part of it.
I realized that this blog is a huge thing for me. I started off scared out of my mind. Everything about a blog was foreign and bizarre and so Not. My. Thing. And then something just took over and blogging was great. Everything around me could suddenly be turned into a blog post – into a chance to write about what I see and experience, but not in a pretentious look-at-me-and-my-interesting (not)- life kind of way.
One thing that everyone on the panel said was that you just need to keep writing. No matter what. I scold myself for not writing in my journal more, but when I stop and think, I realize I’ve been writing all summer. Sure, I’m not writing as much fiction and poetry as I’d maybe like to, but I have not abandoned words. I still try to keep them flowing through me in some way, shape, or form.
Now I know I just have to take a few more steps. I need to put myself out there more. I need to get more involved. As a senior taking 5 classes, working, and trying to stay healthy, all while maintaining some semblance of a social life, that’s easier said than done, but I think I can make it work.
Sooo… I got a bit off-topic. The talk was awesome. I think I pretty much covered that. After the aforementioned talk I met up with the roomie (we lived together sophomore year, she graduated last year and is now living and working in Philly, but she’ll always be my roomie [and Puddles] to me) and we met another friend for dinner at a nearby restaurant that is able to accommodate my friend-with-many-allergies. After dinner, roomie and I headed back to campus and ended up hanging with 2 of my hall-mates (the other in our group is gone for the weekend). We ended up kind of just chilling in my room/the hallway outside my room with one other person from the hall, drinking red wine and making fun of the ridiculous stuff that we all say. It was a good time.
After dropping roomie off at the train station, one of my hall-mates and I just sort of hung out outside and talked for a bit. It was sort of a serious discussion and sort of a share-time, but we had our lighthearted moments and it was a nice bit of bonding.
So yes, many good things happened today:
- I don’t suck quite as much at Chinese as I thought I did
- I got to learn more about an industry devoted to my first and never-ending love (coughBOOKScough)
- I got to see roomie!
- I got to hang out with some really amazing people while either eating good food, or drinking decent wine
- I got to get to know one of my hall-mates a little better
I still have lots to do and think about (and write about – the reviews are coming, I swear!), and since I didn’t really get much reading done today it means that I actually have to be productive this weekend, but I feel good. Mildly overwhelmed, but good. I know that there are some steps I need to take, there are some things I need to write, and there are some changes I need to make. There are also lists I need to make, but the lists reflect the above-mentioned ‘musts’, so everything is all intertwined.
I feel good right now. Let’s see how I feel tomorrow when I have to get up to do Saturday paging…
