Hello, sunshine!

Why hello, warm weather. It's so nice to see you!

If you readers haven't been able to tell, my life has taken a busy turn.
The only way anyone would be able to tell is if they noticed that I haven't posted anything since February. If any of you readers are in that boat, thank you for reading my little corner of the Internet! I appreciate your readership and hope that you're still with me.

I'm a college student. Not only am I a college student, but also I'm an over-achieving college student. This semester, I bit off much more than I'm used to chewing. Thus, blogging made it to the lower-reaches of my priority list. I barely had time to eat, sleep, and stay sane in between all of the writing, reading, and attending class. Luckily, the semester is over. However, there is no rest for the wicked. I'm starting my three summer classes tomorrow. Only one of them is on the actual campus, and it only lasts a week. My other two are online, and they will last until August. There are other tentative plans in the works, but we'll cross those when my summer is a little more solidified.

Updates for those interested (in no particular order):

1. I changed my major from Education to Literary Studies. My minor is still political science. I'm still interested in education, but I honestly think that I would be able to do more on a larger scale by acting as a voice for education rather than a voice within the system. I still may go into teaching, but my goal is to be some sort of policy writer or other kind of writer. Perhaps I will become a blogger for real. We'll cross that bridge when school is over. Which leads me to the exciting news that...
2. I am 100% on track to graduate in Spring 2014. Seriously. And...
3. This is Josh:

He's my boyfriend, and he's pretty awesome. :)
He graduated with two bachelor's degrees (International Studies and Economics) on Saturday.

My life is pretty awesome right now. Regardless of how stressed I was during this last semester, I had some pretty fantastic things happen. I won scholarship money, I'm on track with some really cool research, I feel like I have a good reputation in my department, I'm going to graduate a full year earlier than I thought, I have potential opportunities to present and/or publish my research in the next year, and I have a pretty solid foundation for my thesis.

In the personal department, I'm just really happy. Sometimes, with heart-breaking decisions come blessings beyond compare, and that's what I'm experiencing right now. This boy helps my happiness. Sometimes we take cute pictures, and it only increases my affection.

Hello, success. 

Hello, confidence. 

Hello, healing. 

Hello, happiness. 

Hello, new life. 

Hello, sunshine. Thanks for illuminating my path. 

cheers,

ka.  

p.s. do you remember that guy who told me to have fun on a Friday night, the one from one of my political science classes who told me to slow down? He and Josh are one and the same. :) 

Slow it down.

It recently came to my attention that I have a tendency to race through life. Let's face it--I'm a worrier. I worry about school and family and friends and love and the weather and my health and undergraduate research and whether or not I'm good enough to get a grant and whether or not I'm going to be something in my college career and whether or not I'm reading enough and whether or not I watch too much TV and whether or not I'm in the right career path and...

You get the picture.

My biggest worry is that I am what I hate: a fraud. I do all these things, and people tell me that I work so hard, but sometimes I worry that I'm not working hard enough. I worry that I'm not smart enough to get all the praise that I do or to receive the grades that I do.

I know that I am not the only person out there who worries. You see, it's like a sickness that spreads through your mind and makes it impossible to slow down. I have to keep going, and when I don't, I feel incredibly guilty.

I was talking to a guy in one of my classes the other day. He was going to a free concert with some of his friends and wondered if I was gonna go, and I said that I had too much homework. Then he just laughed and told me that I should never be too busy to have some fun on a Friday night. However, I stayed home and did my Spanish homework (and watched Netflix).

Not too long after that, I found this picture:

In one of my political science classes, we talked a little bit about work hours and how they coincide with productivity. Amazingly, in countries like France, where people only work 35 hours a week, the productivity was the same as people in countries like Japan, where people work 80+ hours a week. What does that mean? It means that when you have a little fun, the work somehow is better as well.

I know that I work hard. I don't know if I work hard enough for my standards, but that shouldn't matter. When I die, do I want to look back on my life and think Man, I sure worked hard, or do I want to think Man, I made some good memories with my friends and family? I think it can be both. I like working hard--it makes me feel good. But I need to remember that working too hard and worrying too much will just make me rush through the life that I'm supposed to live.

Make time for work, make time for play. Believe me, you need both of them.

cheers,
ka.

I wish I didn't need sleep.

Do you have any idea how many things I could get done if I didn't have to sleep?

Midterms and papers are running through my head right now, and I do not have enough time in the day. It's never enough. In fact, I should be reading Sense and Sensibility right now instead of writing this blog post. But I digress.

I just feel like I could be so accomplished if I didn't have to sleep. My music talents would be better, I would have a larger vocabulary, my school work wouldn't seem so heavy... staying up all night to finish homework sounds pretty tempting right now, I'm not gonna lie.

But then I remember that relaxation is actually more conducive to success than stressful work.

I wish I didn't need to sleep, but I do. I wish I could go all day, but I can't. Sometimes, it's ok to put my homework aside and get enough sleep.

But, alas, I fear that night will not be tonight.

Just a little stressed-out midterm post to tickle your fancy.

ka.