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I like that I’m still figuring my life out.

This is a rather large revelation for me. I’m generally someone who has a plan for every minute of everyday, and if a plan doesn’t work I always have a plan “b” or “c”. I’ve been getting a bit discouraged that I still haven’t heard anything from the Masters program, and I was talking to a friend who is also applying for Masters programs. We were having the same concerns about what to do with our lives depending on the response from our respective schools and I made a joke that we’ll just hang out and keeping working.

I may have said it as a joke to try and make our situations seem less stressful, but I realized that even if neither of us get accepted to our schools life is still going to go on and we’ll both probably be Ok. Sure we both had a plan for our future, but it doesn’t mean that if that one plan fails we don’t have a future.

It just means that we both will need to reevaluate what we want to do with our lives. I’ve seen friends get in Masters programs who love it, and others who don’t. I have some friends that are happy without getting a second degree and they already are doing something they enjoy. It is the curse of the newly post graduate. We’ve had our lives pretty structured for us until now and this new lack of direction is a bit startling. Despite the fact that I tend to have a plan for everything I actually like that I don’t have anything really set in stone right now.

I’m surrounded by some of the best friends I could ask for, and I like the life I have right now. Yes, there are certainly some places in my life I’d like to improve, but overall I’m doing pretty well for a 22 year old.

 

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I thought this Snoopy picture was needed. If things are going wrong it’s better to laugh at them instead of cry at them. In most situations. Let’s not get carried away.

Have a good day everyone.

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Hello Life? I need some help figuring you out.

Hello all,

ImageThis post today is focused more on life than on literary topics. Yes, I do think that literature is basically the thing that keeps me breathing, but we’ll forget that for right now. I’ve had a lot of people tell me that life is hard and you just have to make your way through it. I’m sure everyone has heard some variant of this before, and my family has had it’s fair share of difficult times. However, I don’t think think that we should simply wade through life to the end when we finally get a chance at rest. 

Yes, there are bad things that happen in everyone’s lives, but there is also good, and if you spent all your time weighing the good versus the bad you would only find yourself in a well of misery. Ouch.

Showcasing my inner geek I picked out a quote from the T.V. series Dr. Who that pertains to this topic. Some think that the show is too outlandish for them, and at times it can be, but there are moments in the show where something is said that rings true about life, and this is the quote that I was reminded of when I was writing this post:

“The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and…bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don’t necessarily spoil the good things or make them unimportant.” -The Doctor 

 

So, I encourage people to stop thinking they need to wade through life, or hoping it gets better some time in the not-so-distant future. The way it gets better is by cherishing those moments that make your heart stop with the joy of being alive. Remember that without the bad we wouldn’t appreciate the good. Don’t worry so much about figuring out life. It comes at it’s own pace, and we may never have life truly figured out, but that’s part of the adventure isn’t it?

Imagine if we were born knowing the secret to having a good life. We wouldn’t be able to look back on all the adventures, the mistakes, and the crazy ideas that turned into memories with the same joy. Life is about discovery, and at the heart of life we are striving to discover ourselves as we celebrate both the good and the bad, because that means we’re alive.

 

Photo courtesy of: fralfonse.blogspot.com

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The Kitten Factor: Writing and Life

I’m back, and needless to say it feels awesome to be back. Again, sorry for the absence, but getting married, moving, and changing my entire life all in the course of a few days has certainly taught me about the process of writing. We moved in to our apartment three weeks before our stuff was set to arrive: basically, it is very difficult to spend the energy creating something out of nothing when you are sleeping on the floor.
I also realized that writing in a room by yourself is a great deal simpler than writing in a room with another person while that person is playing a really interesting looking video game.

I think a wise woman once said something about having a room to one’s own to write in. Boy, was she dead on. I love writing, and I could spend a whole day working out the best way to construct a sentence, but I’m also a nerd, so when I see a video game with a well thought out complex story line I feel the need to investigate. I’m researching, right? At least I like to tell myself that.
Ms. Woolf was also dead on about needing a job to help support yourself:

“A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”

Worrying about how I’m going to pay for dinner and rent seems to be a common enough worry for people. Striving to be creative when you’re worried about finances is a rather harsh rejection by one’s own creative intellect. Writing shouldn’t be blocked by the measly amount of money one has in one’s bank account but, c’est la vie.
So far, I’m come to the conclusion that we writers need enough of an income that we aren’t worried about feeding ourselves, and a place to work that’s quiet and secluded. I know many people who have managed this, and many have found that having a pet around is a comforting companionable silence. Dog? Writer’s best friend. Cat? I could be the crazy cat lady. Kitten? Maybe not.

Chrono arrives home

Although our kitten (affectionately called “the fur ball with teeth”) makes the apartment finally feel like a home, he is also a writer’s nightmare. The scribbling of a pen is usually soothing. Unless it could be used as a play thing. I have some lovely writing done that’s accompanied by huge pen streaks across the pages simply because the fur ball thought it would be an excellent time to chew on my pen.

All of this has been a learning experience on writing, and on life. I’ve come to the conclusion that this whole process has been a raging, exciting, growing change. Just like our kitten. While moving does throw your whole world out of whack for some time it is important to maintain the habits that keep you sane. I maybe be back to a seemingly normal schedule, but I’m still not sure where all of my notebooks are. I’m hoping they turn up sometime soon. Unless my kitten got a hold of them…
Until next time.
Happy Reading

Quote courtesy of: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/v/virginia_woolf.html

Picture Courtesy of me 🙂

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Awesome Quotes by Amazing Authors

GCM

 

 

“Human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but … life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves.”
― Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez

Beautifully written, but then again that’s expected. I love this quote because it says something about each of us as individuals. We grow and change so much even after we mature. It is self-reliance and confidence in our talents that continually allow us to “give birth” to ourselves. We are never stagnant in our lives. We are always growing and changing, and that is the beauty of life. It is an obligation, as Garcia-Marquez states, that I happily take to heart.