I went to my very first class since May 2011 on Monday. I was half an hour early and I donated SEVERAL quarters to Iowa City because I hadn't quite figured out parking and decided I'd rather be safe than sorry on my very first day of school.
I went to the Campus Christian Fellowship office after class for a kick-off-the-year pizza party (also pretty early). I walked into the room, dropped my backpack, and announced to the five or six people there: "I HAVE HOMEWORK!!!"
To which the popular reply has been: "Kaycee, you're sick!"
I've spent the past year trying to read and research things just to keep my brain working, to keep learning things. I've been creating my own studies to keep my mind engaged and remember how to be a student. It's been like a stray dog digging through the garbage for food--and hey, to the dog, half of a week-old cheeseburger is delicious!
But then I walked into lecture on Wednesday afternoon, and this woman (albeit a tad eccentric, and by all appearances not necessarily in tune with the real world outside of academia) stood at the podium, clicking through slide after slide of a power point, setting plate after plate of knowledge before this starving student. I was handed three pages of notes in less than an hour! College students have this nasty habit of packing up their bags before the professor is done talking so they can skedaddle just as fast as they can once class is over, but I was sad when the intellectual meal was over!
I walked into CCF after that class, and one of my dear friends there said, "Oh, she has that after-lecture glow!" I did. It was almost like being in love again!
It's been a pretty crazy and slightly overwhelming week, though. I spent all summer long getting barely 30 hours a week at work and wondering what in the world to do with my life, and now that school has started I'm suddenly getting 40 hours a week, we transitioned several kiddos into our room for the first time (which is always a bit of a challenge!), and now I have homework, CCF and Salt Company are kicking up for the year, I'm still working on how to fit two plasma donations into my week (keeping in mind that I can't have caffeine on plasma days!), and poor lil' miss Gracie Lynn is wondering where in the world her mommy disappears to all day every day. She wasn't speaking to me the last couple of days until I finally snuggled in for a nap with her after a CCF camping trip this morning.
People do crazy things to pursue their dreams.
During the discussion section of the class I am taking, we did introductions: what's your interest in English, what year are you, and one interesting thing about you. How in the world do I answer those questions in under five minutes? I stumbled through my answer, trying to quickly summarize my explanation of how I'm a junior but yet this is my first class in Iowa while still maintaining my dignity as a 21 year old who should be a senior now. I told my class that this was the only class I was taking this semester because I'm working full-time while I was at it, and there were a couple of muffled "wow"s around the room. I almost laughed. You don't know the half of it!
Meanwhile, as I'm acquiring a taste for cheap coffee and cramming study sessions at a short table in the school age room during lunch breaks, I'm still working on resident status. I had a tough time getting a hold of my tax returns for some reason, but finally succeeded! Now I just need to get my parents' tax returns. And a notarized statement saying that I intend to claim myself as an independent in the years to come. And a notarized statement from my parents saying they do not intend to claim me in the years to come. And "proof of employment," whatever in the world THAT'S supposed to mean. My boss suggested a pay stub, I sure hope that does it!
I'm in this for the long haul. I don't really know how long this is going to take me. I'd like to try for two classes next semester, but I'm not sure how feasible it will be both finantically-speaking as well as time-wise. Until then though, I shall enjoy with all my heart my long-awaited return to academia!
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Writing, Reading, and Cleaning
This is what I do with my summer! Of course, it took me all summer long to be okay with that.
You see, Iowa City kind of has its way of shutting down in the summer. All of the campus ministries slow down (when they aren't stopped completely), lots of people leave to spend summer at home, on mission trips, studying abroad, etc.; some people leave for good because they've graduated or it's just time to transfer. And besides, I've only been here for a year (almost). That's not quite long enough to make friends you can call up in the middle of the night and say, "Hey, let's go wander around WalMart! It'll be AWESOME!!!"
Parents pull their kids out of daycare for the summer in Iowa City because half of them work for the University, so during the summer they can stay home with their kiddos. Which means there are less hours needed from the employees. Which means I only work 30 hours a week. And then clock out and hang out with the babies and all my kids who turned 2 and moved out of my room, because they're all cute and I have nothing better to do.
So I hang out at work after I get off. I donate plasma to make some extra bank (I'm gonna need it!). I read all the YA stuff that's fun to get sucked into for days at a time. I read poetry that I didn't really have time to sit down and bask in during the year. I read Shakespeare because I want something that will take up a LOT of this empty time that I have.
And I write my painfully rough draft of my WIP. I love the story, I love the world, and I love the characters; the problem is that I've been working on it for several years, and over the course of various life events, I have been several completely different people over the course of the past several years. My main characters always have a tendency to take after all of my issues, so poor Princess Inirae has run the gamut of all of my emotional distress and faced all of my problems with me and has thus sufficiently destroyed the arc of my story. Needless to say, Nostras is in a state of chaos that must be cleaned up. My goal is to pound through a rough draft by the time I go home for Labor Day so I can go to Kinkos and print it out so I can start my editing process.
When I need to get off my butt and do something, I've been cleaning. Because this chicka is going to be starting school a week from Monday! So let's set off on the right foot and have an organized office and a clean apartment to come home to! After all, I am incredibly blessed to be able to stay here another year, bats and cockroaches and all!
I have every intention of my last week of summer being productive, and I'm looking forward to putting this summer behind me!
Quick Update: As most of you know, I applied to the University for resident status. They sent me a letter that said something to the effect of: "We got your application. Now go on another scavenger hunt and spend more hours of your life on this process, send us an even thicker envelope than you did last time, and we'll look it over and let you know what we think." Moral of the story: One step closer, but it kinda feels like two steps back. At least they didn't just say "No,"... I think...
You see, Iowa City kind of has its way of shutting down in the summer. All of the campus ministries slow down (when they aren't stopped completely), lots of people leave to spend summer at home, on mission trips, studying abroad, etc.; some people leave for good because they've graduated or it's just time to transfer. And besides, I've only been here for a year (almost). That's not quite long enough to make friends you can call up in the middle of the night and say, "Hey, let's go wander around WalMart! It'll be AWESOME!!!"
Parents pull their kids out of daycare for the summer in Iowa City because half of them work for the University, so during the summer they can stay home with their kiddos. Which means there are less hours needed from the employees. Which means I only work 30 hours a week. And then clock out and hang out with the babies and all my kids who turned 2 and moved out of my room, because they're all cute and I have nothing better to do.
So I hang out at work after I get off. I donate plasma to make some extra bank (I'm gonna need it!). I read all the YA stuff that's fun to get sucked into for days at a time. I read poetry that I didn't really have time to sit down and bask in during the year. I read Shakespeare because I want something that will take up a LOT of this empty time that I have.
And I write my painfully rough draft of my WIP. I love the story, I love the world, and I love the characters; the problem is that I've been working on it for several years, and over the course of various life events, I have been several completely different people over the course of the past several years. My main characters always have a tendency to take after all of my issues, so poor Princess Inirae has run the gamut of all of my emotional distress and faced all of my problems with me and has thus sufficiently destroyed the arc of my story. Needless to say, Nostras is in a state of chaos that must be cleaned up. My goal is to pound through a rough draft by the time I go home for Labor Day so I can go to Kinkos and print it out so I can start my editing process.
When I need to get off my butt and do something, I've been cleaning. Because this chicka is going to be starting school a week from Monday! So let's set off on the right foot and have an organized office and a clean apartment to come home to! After all, I am incredibly blessed to be able to stay here another year, bats and cockroaches and all!
I have every intention of my last week of summer being productive, and I'm looking forward to putting this summer behind me!
~ * ~
Quick Update: As most of you know, I applied to the University for resident status. They sent me a letter that said something to the effect of: "We got your application. Now go on another scavenger hunt and spend more hours of your life on this process, send us an even thicker envelope than you did last time, and we'll look it over and let you know what we think." Moral of the story: One step closer, but it kinda feels like two steps back. At least they didn't just say "No,"... I think...
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