What gets me up in the morning

If you were to ask me this before summer started, it would have been my cats.  They like to wake me up when it is breakfast time, or if they see me open my eyes.  They also like to wake me up from my naps so I can give them attention.

But now, I wake up way earlier for my ASL class I take four days a week.  It is actually through the University of Washington so it is very convenient.  I go to class from 8:45am to 1pm, Monday through Thursday.  We experience total immersion; the classroom is a no talking zone.  I have already learned so many signs after the first week and am so excited to learn more.

I love the class, I love how we learn, and I really love the group of students that are attending.  They are all there to be able to expand the horizons of communication, and to learn about a new culture.  Everyone is so understanding and excited to be there just as much as I am.  ASL is such a beautiful language, and thank goodness I still have another 8 weeks.  After it is finished, who knows?  Maybe I'll continue the second year courses at UW. :)

A Small Accomplishment

This really isn't a big deal, but I got a poster into WikiSym 2011!  For those of you who don't know what it is here is a link: http://www.wikisym.org/ws2011/

And if you don't want to read the link, it is a conference about websites such as Wikipedia, and cool innovations  to make them more interesting, get others to become contributors instead of readers, etc.  Is there something in Wikipedia where you could see yourself making a contribution, or maybe a subject you want to add?

Papers are the way to go through graduate school (and get a job), but I will submit the paper version of this poster this fall.  The reason that this is so exciting is that it is the first acceptance while in graduate school!  I am happy they accepted my work in progress because they can see the value in my work.  I am so happy today!

A Real Vacation...

For the past couple of days I have been lucky enough to be on a vacation.  I spent the first day with my mom and going through things in my room and reminiscing about school and the past.  I really wish I could spend more time with her :(

The next two days have been spent at Neskowin, OR right on the beach with my Dad, Kris, and brother Bryan.  It has been beautiful watching the waves crash and just enjoying nature.  It really has been amazing for the most part to just kick back and relax.  I am glad that I will be seeing more of them this summer!

I wish I could have vacations like this more often.  I think at one point I said "I feel really lazy right now", and I was told "That's great!".  I need more positive reinforcement ;)

I hope people are taking advantage of the summer months ahead to be lazy.

I'm not giving up

Admittedly, the blog failed miserably, but I can explain why -

First off, I had all the symptoms of Norovirus, but I never checked with a doctor because I hate visiting the doctor.  I was stuck at home for days and it wasn't fun.  I finally traveled south to Corvallis since I hadn't eaten anything to visit college friends (so no opportunity to get sick on the road).  Five days later, I got home and was really burnt out about school.  Naturally, the next day, I got sick again.  I got "better" in time for the end of the term, and then got a sinus headache which kept me in bed for a while.  Needless to say, it has been frustrating being constantly sick for the better part of a month.  However, if this is the worst of my illnesses, I am pretty lucky.

The purpose of this post isn't for me to complain, but as you can guess, I wasn't really enjoying life for a while.  And yes, the question of whether or not graduate school is a healthy place for me has come up in my thoughts.  When talking to people about graduate school, everyone says you need a good enough reason to stay.  This confuses me though, because what is the golden reason?  Are there good reasons to pick from somewhere that I'm not aware of?  Is my reason socially acceptable, or will you just listen to me skeptically and think I'll quit in another year?

You know what my reason is (and believe me, most of the time I can't come up with one)?  It just feels right.  I honestly think that I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now.  I think that if I were to quit I would really regret leaving behind the opportunity I have right now laying in my hands.  But I guess, the only person that this reason needs to fulfill is me.

This logic holds true for other things, like why you live the way you do, your relationships, your friends, and how you work through hard times.  The past month or so has been a hard time for me, but I'm ready to move on and keep tackling life, without needing the validation of others.  And being happy.

But - I can't forget how sick I have gotten solely from stress, and I think that there are some life changes I need to make soon or I might just not be able to survive a graduate program.  I am identifying that the lack of structure in grad school allows me to either a) work, or b) do something for fun and feel guilty the entire time.  In fact, I very rarely take a break for myself without feelings of guilt.  This has got to change.  I swear the bottomless pit in my stomach and mental strain has caused me to get as sick as I did, and be unhappy.

So my challenge to myself is to eradicate this stress, and not give up.  Not give up on being happy, finishing school, or this blog.  I'm not done yet.