Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Things That Are Making Me Happy

I've noticed that Holly, over at Eating a Tangerine, frequently posts 'things that are making me happy'. And because lots of things make me happy, and its good to share happiness, I thought I'd give it a try.

*reading a 400+ page book in less than a day
*being all moved in at school, ready for classes to start tomorrow
*that one of the walls in my dorm room is covered in postcards my roommate and I got from around the world (postcrossing.com)
*having pen pals
*writing letters
*that my cousin comes home soon
*planning the first grocery-store trip of the semester for this afternoon
*the Fudge Petites my roommate brought
*that, after being on campus a day or two, it doesn't really feel like I really left for that long.
*that the showers in this dorm have hot water. Last year, that wasn't always a guarantee, unless you got up early enough ;)



what about you?

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Midnight Snack

A friend and I wanted to have a movie marathon.
But not a traditional movie marathon.
No Harry Potter, or Lord of the Rings, or Star Wars, or whatever other movie series' there are.
We planned to watch movies that had the same actress in each movie.
We decided on Audrey Hepburn.

When the night actually came, our 'marathon' was only two movies long. We watched Breakfast at Tiffany's and My Fair Lady.

Between movies we took a picnic break.
We closed the sliding door behind us a few minutes before midnight.
We walked barefoot through the wet, wet, wet grass and laid the white sheets in the middle of the yard.
We ate pre-sliced peaches and blueberries under the stars.
The air was chilly, I was glad for my sweatpants.
I wished for a hoodie.
We tried to find constellations, but the Star-Finder was lost, and neither of us know our stars very well.
We talked about traveling to Europe.
The mosquitoes decided to have a picnic, too.
We picked up the blankets and went back outside, ending our picnic, and the mosquito's picnic, too.

Monday, August 23, 2010

The Ghost of Dreams that Never Happened

Now that the summer clock has one week remaining, I'm thinking about all the things I never did. Thinking of all the ghosts of dreams I created at the begining of the year, never to give them shape, and substance, and color.

To begin summer, or anything for that matter, with so many expectations can be exciting. So many aspirations on my to do list, so many ideals about what the day to day experience will be like... but if you don't stay focused on each goal, and get rid of the little distractions, the next thing you know you will look back over the weeks and months, and at your to do list, and in your journal, and see very few things worth noticing.

You may see the ghosts of dreams that never happened, the things that could have happened if you had given them a chance. You may wonder where you lost focus, wonder how you managed to waste so much time, and wonder why in the world you haven't learned yet. A ghost of a dream is never as exciting as looking back at the actual dream fulfilled.

So many things I wanted to do this summer never got done because I had the mentality that 'The summer is long, I can do that some other time!'  Note: that doesn't work well. I would go so far to say that it is a form of procrastination. Of lethargy. This happened with many of my goals and aspirations. I never gave them substance, so they float around as ghosts of dreams that never happened. Dreary, dull, and see through. 

When I think that I have all the time in the world, or even that I have time to spare, nothing gets done. Thats part of the reason I am eager for school to start: I'll have a regular schedule again, a routine. The trick is making a routine for myself over breaks, weather they be a long weekend, a month for Christmas, or three and half months for summer.

I need to have my goals always in front of me, if they are serious ones like contacting the senate about some important issue, or goofy ones like having a picnic in non-picnic weather, so that whenever a chance arises, I am prepared to seize it.

I'll be able to add substance to the ghosts of dreams, and build memories with them. I will be able to look at that dream as something that actually happened and not something I just wanted to happen. Because if all my dreams are just something I wanted to happen, but never do anything about, I will look back over time and look right through those ghosts of dreams, not actually seeing them, because I never gave them substance.

Give your goals a chance, stay focused on them. Don't let your life fill with Ghosts of Dreams that Never Happened, because that is a very dull life, indeed.