Adventures at the Met

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I know you get it, I’ve been busy. As a recap, consider: in February add a second job, in March move and get married, in April go to Mexico, in May graduate college, in June go to New York City, then take a deep breath. We got back from New York City two weeks ago where we visited with some internet friends who showed us the sights and how to use the Metro and let us sleep on their couch. IMG_8613

We ate a lot of food in New York City (I ate four bagels in five days) and a lot of walking. We saw a lot. Fortunately for me, among those things were two museums: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History.

Having grown up in Kansas City, I went on my first field trip to the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in the second grade. I still remember the smell quite vividly. I also remember the way the Arabia Steamboat Museum smelled when we went in the fourth grade. Luckily for you, I won’t be writing about the way The Met and the AMNH smelled for an entire post.

I’ve been to Kansas City’s National World War I Museum many times and it was this museum that taught me to meditate. Museums have always been for me a spiritual sort of experience. Continue reading “Adventures at the Met” →

I built a desk.

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I love symbolism. I suppose it’s a quirk of literary people. Maybe?

I’m sure we all remember that I graduated from college about a month ago. I sort of hate it. I decided after only two weeks that I missed it too much and I had to go to grad school. To go to graduate school, I have to take the GRE and how, I thought, can I study for the GRE unless I have a desk?

So began my great search for the desk of my dreams. I found one I liked online and showed it to my sister for her style input. She said of her husband, “Oh, he can just make that for you.” Continue reading “I built a desk.” →

Springtime Reflections

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Spring is a time for new things: new life, new beginnings, new growth. New things seldom occur without change and this spring has brought with it a great many changes for me.

Two days after Christmas, my eight year old cousin died suddenly after a fall at home. It was devastating to our whole family and I found myself quite existentially unsettled. How can we live with death? It was a hard start to the year.

In January, I began my first semester as an unconventional student. I began a second job assisting with workers’ compensation cases at a law firm. I was taking one class in person at a local community college, rather than my university. I got a taste of what life is like when you are not a college student. Continue reading “Springtime Reflections” →

Seasons of Change

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This week follows the conclusion of my penultimate undergraduate semester. This week I have no more assignments due or meetings to go to or classes to attend. And this time, the break will be more substantial than just winter break.

According to my plans, I was supposed to have graduated yesterday. Things don’t often go according to plan, however, so I still have one more semester and just a handful of classes. I have run out of English classes to take at my university so I’ll be taking a women’s lit course online at a community college. I’m taking ASL. I have online history. That’s it. Continue reading “Seasons of Change” →

A Reflection on Personal Branding

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The creation of this website came out of a class. Professional Writing in English Studies. Up until this class, I thought that my branch of professional writing would mean academic writing; literary analysis, book reviews, things like that. As it turns out, it does mean those things but it also means a lot more.

We started with CVs and resumes, cover letters, grant proposals, transcriptions, and ended with a professional website. Personally, that progression meant a destruction of my self-confidence followed by a mandate to confidently market my personal academic brand on the Internet for everyone to see! Needless to say, I found this quite troubling. Continue reading “A Reflection on Personal Branding” →

How to Become an English Major

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Once upon a time, there were two people who really wanted me to become an English major. Even if you  know only one thing about me, you probably know that they succeeded.

My first semester at Park, I was a psychology major and I thought that I wanted to become a therapist to help people. My plan before that had been to be a nurse, so psychology was at least a step in the right direction after a stint at Community College and leaving my first University. Unfortunately for my plans, the psychology class I took my first semester at Park was murderously terrible and I hated virtually every second of it. Continue reading “How to Become an English Major” →