Take Me Home, Those Country Roads

Ireland

In honor of missing Ireland today, I have uploaded old pictures of memories that will live inside me forever and I will never forget.

Dead Week

I received an email earlier this week from a friend that signed off with: "hope you have a productive dead week!" As an English major, I can appreciate the irony of that statement. For starters my University clearly doesn't comprehend the concept of "dead week". I had a quiz, a presentation and a paper due today and a few miscellaneous, yet time consuming, projects due as well . Next week I have three finals and two papers due. Provided this is a lot to handle, I wouldn't have such a hard time if the library would stay open all night. For the first time in my college career I was kicked out of the library for staying too late. The library holds 24 hour study hours during finals week but where is the love for dead week? I don't need to study all of next week because my last final is on Monday, I needed them this week! With the copious amount of stress growing in my life, the thing that is guiding me through it is, ironically, my literature homework. Today I read a story for my British Literature class and it totally relaxed me. It also inspired me to pick out my favorite works we have done this year. In honor of having to return my book (I'm strapped for cash and they will pay me!) I am going to post a page with the poems that I fell in love with this semester.

Initiation

Unless you are an active or past member of the Greek community, initiation means nothing to you. If you are part of the Greek community, you know how much initiation means and that all of its meaning cannot be conveyed with words. Initiation is the same every time yet means a variety of different things to each person. My feelings deepen each time I get the privilege in participating in my chapters ritual. My favorite thing about our ritual is that it's not exclusive to my fraternity, it crosses over into every single aspect of my life. It gets me through the tough stuff and it celebrates my amazing accomplishments. Recently I had an old friend accuse my sisters of brainwashing me. Hearing her say these words hurt. I took a step back and evaluated what I was like a year ago to who I am now. I am a better person, but I am also human. I hurt this friend by getting involved in my house to the extent that I have. I became so busy that I had no time to see my old friends. That quickly turned in to assuming that the other person didn't want to be friends. I realize this friend will never understand the things that I have gain from my relatively short experience in the Greek community, but I know that why I deal with the pain of losing a friend, my sisters will help me through it. And in times that my sisters are just as busy as I am, ritual will be my rock. Ritual stands for everything I believe in and I stand for ritual because I believe in it.

Rainy Days and Explosions in the Sky

Today is St. Patrick's day which isn't a surprise to anyone. Last St. Patrick's I attended our hometown parade with a few of my sorority sisters and enjoyed the amazingly sunny warm (being relative, most likely 50 degrees) weather we were having. This year however I went out last night and stayed out until three in the morning. I am an early riser on the weekends but not to day. I leisurely got up around 10am to see that it was snowing outside. The snow quickly turned to rain. Rain is one of my favorite things. For me, rain has the ability to change my mood into one that is ultimately calming. When it rains everything feels right. It reminds of me of being in Ireland and listening to the rain fall as a fell asleep. It reminds me of dancing in the rain when I so incredibly happy. Dancing in the rain heightens my happiness to a state that comes around so rarely these days. This isn't to say that I am not happy there is just something about being so happy I can't stand it that I miss.

I went to study in a local coffee shop. I picked a small table in the back under romantic lighting and sat down ready to study. That clearly failed. I turned on my Pandora to the Explosion in the Sky station and set forth. I usually do really well listening to them and completing my homework. Something about today however, and I couldn't. I sat and reflected about my life. Nothing in particular to share, but enough to get me thinking. After a bit of reflecting I began to think about my classes. Lately I have been really intrigued with my Caribbean Literature course. I am so fascinated in the history of the Caribbean that I download some Bob Marley songs. As I was listening to them I had an epiphany. The things that have made the most happy in my life have been the things that I was initially unsure about. I have always stuck to the two same genres of music: Country and Pop. Occasionally some alternative tunes sneak in there but not often. Last night I went to a concert that I really didn't think I would enjoy. I was invited and decided it might be fun. It was the most fun I have had in a long time. I miss pushing my limits and seeing where it will take me. I realize that attending a concert isn't necessarily pushing my limits, but it hasn't ever been my thing. After everything that I have reflected about today, I think I am finally ready to start my bucket list.