Comments

To Anonymously Me at Anonymous Thoughts:
I agree with Haley Sue: put yourself out there. Oh course, you don't have to do anything you don't want to.

To Haley Sue at A Watermelon Dream:
I'm lucky. I have my best friends around me all the time. I guess that's a curse sometimes too. :)

I hope you finish your papers!

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Today I read Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. It's about a thirteen-year-old girl traveling across the upper-United States with her free-spirited grandparents, telling them the story of her friend Phoebe Winterbottom, all the while maturing as a human being and healing emotional scars after her mom left her and her father and never returned. Told in an easy, poignant manner, I thought the story was touching and heart-felt, while the characters were hilariously off-beat--especially Phoebe. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a simple, emotional book to finish in an afternoon.

I read this book, by the way, for Children's Literature, which has already become my most rigorous class. I have to finish a 5 page draft of my research paper by next week. (Sure, it's not 9 or even 5 papers like Haley Sue, but I don't think its anything to scoff at either, especially in light of demands from my other classes. But maybe I'm being too childish, though. Haha. I guess I am.)

I don't think I've mentioned the fact that my poetry class is self-publishing our work into a high-quality book. It'll be very professional-looking and organized just like any top-tier poetry magazine. I'm very excited to see my poems published in print. Even though I'm starting to view my writing as something to pour large amounts of effort in and work hard to produce, I'm still flabbergasted by the notion of writing for a living. And I might be doing it for the rest of my life! I may pay my bills with poem money. I would be able to buy a home because I rhymed 'don't' with 'won't.' Can I really make a living doing this? I don't know.

That's all for now.

P.S. May Everyday is going swimmingly. Unfortunately, I only wrote for about an hour and a half yesterday, but I'll catch up. Besides, I still have 27 more days of May! :)

First Day

Yesterday was the first day of May Everyday. (I skipped May 1 because...well, just because I thought up the idea around midnight on the first.) It went well, I have to say. I wrote two pages of some story I haven't planned, plus a few poems--one which I'll probably post in the next day. It's about cars! But not really.

I've been feeling a lot more stress recently. It's mostly the amount of work I have to do for school, but it's also the daunting task of transferring to a university next year. Even though I'm confident in my abilities, I can't help but feel overwhelmed in the face of my future. It's like I'm six and I've been riding a bike with training wheels for the past year, and now that I've got a good handle on riding, I'm expected to learn how to ride a motorcycle by next year. Well, it's not really like that; at least, I hope it's not like that. But it sure does feel that way. This feels like one of those times when taking a deep breath and sitting peacefully for a few minutes would do me some good.

I'm back.

Lately, I've been wrestling in my mind where I want to transfer to next year. I'm very lucky because I have plenty of choices, all of which are respectable schools. Living in southern California sure has it's advantageous--even though there's terrible traffic most of the time.

On one hand, there's UC Riverside, a small institution located in Riverside, surrounded by nothing, filled with little social life. On the other hand, there's UCLA, a HUGE school in Westwood, ten minutes from the beach, crowded with people, surrounded by LA society and LA traffic, with more prestige in their parking lots than a lot of schools have in their entire staff.

I'll be getting a quality education at both, that's for certain. They're roughly the same amount to attend too. (I'll most likely be living on campus.)

However, while UCLA is more distinguished, UCR has the specific major I'm most interested in--Creative Writing. And while UCLA does offer a Bachelors in English with a concentration in Creative Writing, I don't know how much I'd rather spend writing as opposed to studying English/literature.

While the area around UCLA is crowded with people and traffic, it does have more interesting things to do. Oh course, I could always drive from UCR into LA, about an hour to hour and a half drive. Or I could just live there. I'm not much of a social butterfly, though, so what's the point of going there simply for the vibrant city life? But, I don't want to be bored out my mind either. I've heard Riverside is a bit of a bore. I don't need much, though; give me a movie and ice cream once in a while and I'll be content to spend my days inside.

I don't want go to UCLA only to impress people, especially my extended family who has produced two UCLA graduates--my two oldest cousins. At the same time, I might receive a more broad and even a more respected education at UCLA as opposed to UCR.

At this point, I still have months before I have to apply. I've got too much to worry about to spend time destroying my peace arguing with myself over which top-tier education I should have. I'll choose the option that makes me happiest. That's the thing about me: I don't worry about myself too much; I'm happy to be content.

In May

I have plans for May.

I plan to write everyday in May for at least two hours, even if all my grades suffer, my eyes turn yellow and fall out, or if it kills me. It's time I stop being so gosh darn lazy and work hard for what I want. I want to be great at my career; I want to feel proud of what I do everyday of my life.

I'm calling it May Everyday because: 1.) it rhymes, and 2.) it reminds me I may or may not choose to be the best writer I can be. And I'll always choose to write.