Dariana inspired me to blog, so you can thank her for this blog post.
10:26pm on a Wednesday night is definitely the best time to blog.
Hi blog. It's the end of my first term of college and I haven't properly written a blog since my first weekend here. Oh well. So life happens.
This term has been interesting.
To start off, FP is boring as anything. I'm in How Water Shapes Humanity, and it's one of the most depressing classes I have ever taken. It's about water, in case you weren't able to guess. It's all about how different cultures depend on water and how the planet's freshwater is running out and how we're all basically screwed and we're destroying the planet and we'll all be dead soon if we don't clean up our act. It's über depressing and I can't wait for it to end. Surprisingly though, I'm doing the best in that class out of all of mine - at midterms, I was getting an A- in it. I'm guessing that's gone down to a B+ or so because I've been super bad about having my response paragraph things done. They're just so easy to slack off on! No one cares about FP and it doesn't contribute towards your major's GPA, just your overall GPA, so I'm not too worried about it.
I'm also taking Introduction to Literature, and as I mentioned in a previous blog post, and the teacher is crazy awesome. She's really eccentric and enthusiastic and I definitely love the course a lot, and it's one of my favorite literature courses that I have ever taken. (Previous Lit courses include: American Lit with Mrs. Hall - ICK ONE OF THE WORST CLASSES OF MY LIFE; BritLit with Mom - decent; your basic English courses - whatever; World Literature with Slechta - not bad, not bad, I liked my classmates. Or, my tablemate. He was awesome; Composition I with Slechta - that was also pretty decent. I did enjoy it.) We've been reading a lot of stories that I've never read before and really enjoyed, including "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Gilman and "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin.
Speaking of The Yellow Wallpaper, I'm writing my term paper on it! Well, I'm writing my term paper on how the narrator's descent into insanity was heavily influenced by the treatment of women at the time (which was terrible. Yay for oppression.) On Monday, we were supposed to turn in a one-page précis that identified the text we'd be analyzing, a tentative thesis, outline a couple of our main arguments and to identify a couple of secondary sources. It wasn't very difficult to do.
(Sidenote - I'm currently talking to Dariana on fb chat right now, and she just told me to read Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. I just read the first few pages on Amazon and it's pretty amazing. Definitely going to see if the library here has it, and if not, I'll get it at the library at home while I'm home for Christmasbreak and read it then! And if not, I'll ask for it for Christmas or something.)
Anyway. Back to my term paper. My professor wants each of us to have a meeting with her about our term papers to discuss what point we're at and what we need to do to improve our topic, etc. I decided to schedule mine for yesterday so I can in theory work on the paper all this week. I meant to look at my potential secondary sources and I haven't quite done that yet. Oops. It's only Wednesday. At the meeting, my professor Beth started it off by saying, "I wanted to thank you, Joella, for being the only member of the class who actually wrote exactly what I asked for." She went on to say that she feels very very good about my paper and that she thinks that I'm in a good place with it and that she knows I'll be able to write a kick-ass paper. So I'm feeling pretty good about that paper.
As I also mentioned in my last proper blogpost that wasn't an "OMG STRESS HELP ME MY BRAIN ISN'T FUNCTIONING AHHH," I was also taking Latin this term. I use the past tense was because that is the case. I was taking it, but I was doing super badly in it. I procrastinated memorizing the vocabulary, I didn't get the textbook until half a week into the class so I had very little time with the textbook, and overall I was struggling, something that I'm not used to doing. I'm used to doing passably in the class if I'm not excelling at it. (At midterm, I was getting a solid F in the class. Super lovely.) So I decided to drop it after going through about a week of crying every day over Latin. I kind of word vomited through tears about the whole situation at my RA, and she gave me a big hug and her pillow pet to hug, which did help quite a lot. She also told me that if I was this stressed over it and doing that badly in the class, then I should just drop it and my entire life would be easier. That's exactly what I did. I dropped Latin and I'm much happier for it, because now I can actually take classes that I want to take next term!!!
Speaking of next term, I signed up for my classes for winter term about two weeks ago. I signed up for ENG 200: the Ways of Reading, SCI 100: The Scientific American Course, and HIST 104: The Ancient Mediterranean World.
ENG 200 is a course where students analyze and assess their own assumptions about what constitutes the act of reading. In the course, we'll apparently test the usefulness of models provided by the following movements: New Criticism, Feminism, Reader-Response, Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis, New Historicism, and Queer Theory to the situated analysis of a variety of literary and cultural texts (as quoted almost verbatim from the course description on the Knox website).
In SCI 100, we'll be analyzing articles from Scientific American and it's supposed to be super awesome and fun. I'm excited for it. Apparently the professor is super eccentric and you can tell that he's a scientist and he's apparently obsessed with copper. He sounds awesome.
And then HIST 104 is history up through the fall of Rome. I'm so excited for that course AHHHHH.
Anyway, yeah. I'm a happy camper.
THE BEST PART IS THAT I'M ALMOST DONE WITH TERM. I have finals from November 20-22, and then winter break technically starts on the 23rd of November, the day before Thanksgiving. However, both of my finals are on Sunday, so I'm going to be able to go home on Monday!!! TWO DAYS EARLY! This means that I will be home in 19 days. I am so ridiculously excited.
I hope this is an adequate update. I'm going to go read the Great Gatsby now that I'm done with the book i have to read for FP - a whole two days before we are supposed to be done with it. I'm so happy. I love college. I can't wait for next term and for the rest of my college career to happen.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
stressed
I've never had this problem with an essay before. I just don't know how to write it. I try to write it and the words don't come. I have the passage I'm going to analyze all picked out, I just can't seem to find the words. This is such a problem too because the essay is due in class tomorrow, and I have to study for a Latin quiz that I have tomorrow and I can't put the essay off until 10pm, when I'll in theory be done with the Latin studying. And to top it off, the suite next to mine is being so fucking loud and I just want them to shut their faces and let me do my homework in peace but I can't because they are ridiculously loud.
I just can't make the words come. They're stuck in my brain and I don't know how to format them or anything.
I just need a hug right now and a good cry and I just wish I could wave a magic wand and have that stupid essay be written or at least have the block be taken off me so I can at least get a draft of it done to edit after I finish studying for Latin, which is never going to happen because I am so far behind in that class it's not even funny. I hate my life right now. Being stressed is no fun.
I just can't make the words come. They're stuck in my brain and I don't know how to format them or anything.
I just need a hug right now and a good cry and I just wish I could wave a magic wand and have that stupid essay be written or at least have the block be taken off me so I can at least get a draft of it done to edit after I finish studying for Latin, which is never going to happen because I am so far behind in that class it's not even funny. I hate my life right now. Being stressed is no fun.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Seconds, Hours, So Many Days
Hi Blogosphere. Guess what.
I'm at college.
Yes, you heard me right. I, Joella Travis, am now officially a poor college student. Today marks my 7th complete day at college, and my eighth day overall.
College so far is a lot of fun. For one thing, the campus is gorgeous. I swear that every other person that I talk to is a Doctor Who fan. It's awesome. Also, it seems like everyone is from the Chicago area. Every person: Me: "Where are you from?" Them: "Chicago area." Every. Single. Time.
I miss Orientation Week. We got free meals, and my orientation group leader was awesome. He checked me in for registration on Saturday and said something like "Oh, you're in my orientation group!" First thing I thought? "Oh my god he sounds so gay." And then my first orientation group meeting happened. Oh man. That was so awkward. Then again, icebreaker games always are. At the end of the week, I still couldn't name everyone in my orientation group. Oh well. At the end of the first meeting, the only names I remembered were the name of my orientation leader (Michael) and this guy who will be known as "The Situation" from now on, or TS. The Situation is about my height, spiky hair about the same color as mine, blue eyes (maybe) and he always walks around with his sunglasses on the back of his head carrying a skateboard. He fascinates me.
Anyway. The orientation meetings were always a kick. I skipped the second one because I didn't know about it, and I was watching Doctor Who, okay? A girl has to have her priorities straight. I can only stay away from the internet for so long. But the third one was a diversity exercise, and that one was definitely interesting. They put two orientation groups together in a room in Old Main and asked generic questions, and you were supposed to go to one side of the room or the other, depending on if you agreed or disagreed with the statement. Some statements that stuck out were "Islam is a religion that promotes terrorism"; "Everyone has a right to get married"; "People with mental disorders should not be discriminated against in consideration for a job," etc. The Islam one really grinded my gears because I think it's way too close to 9/11. (btw: happy ten-year anniversary for 9/11. I'm celebrating because it's my mom's birthday. Yes. Best birthday present ever. Man, people suck some time.) Everyone but two people were on the "disagree" side for that one. One of the guys who agreed with the statement said that he agreed because he hates all religions and said that he believes that God tells everyone what to do, and that he told the terrorists to bomb New York. Yeah. He was kind of annoying. Oh well. I only had to deal with him that one night. And then most everyone was on the agree side for the 'everyone has a right to be married' one... except then someone (don't remember their name) had to open their mouth and say something about what if a 60-year-old wants to marry a 15-year-old. And then a bunch of people went over to the disagree side. Sigh. I took it to mean that everyone has a right to get married regardless of their sexual orientation. So. Yeah.
Michael didn't have much to say over the next couple of days, so one day he took us on a tour of the basements around campus, and then the next day he took us on a tour of the area around Galesburg. It was pretty cool.
And then classes started. I'm taking ENG 120: Intro to Lit, Latin 101 and my first-year preciptorial (commonly called FP) is How Water Shapes Humanity. Fancy, right? Only problem is that the FP is not so much fun... I've only had one day of class, but it's not what I was expecting. At all. Oh well. I'm going to talk to the teacher after class tomorrow, and see if I can get a better feel of what it's going to be like. It could be that I'm just not used to science courses, despite my dad being a brain scientist. Or something. I dunno. Science courses are not my forte, but I need to get used to taking courses I don't particularly want, because I will have to do that.
English class is awesome though, and not just because TS is in it, though that's always a plus. The teacher is insane and really lively and enthusiastic about the class, which is definitely good. She also enjoys going off on random tangents. For example, on Friday she was in the middle of saying something when she looked up at the ceiling and noticed a wasp flying around one of the lights. She then said, "I wonder if that wasp is going to fly down and sting me. That would be bad." And then she went on to explain how Old Main (the building the classroom is in) gets infested with wasps every spring and fall (exactly what we want to know, right?) and often she and her officemates will be standing on their desks with cans of RAID in their hands. It was hilarious.
Latin is going to be okay, I think. The teacher is kind of dry, but right now we're just going over basic pronunciation stuff. I'm hoping once we get past that, the class will get a lot better. There's this one guy though that will not stopping asking questions. It's so infuriating. He then asks followup questions to his questions and doesn't let the teacher teach for more than three minutes. It's kind of ridiculous. JUST LET THE WOMAN TEACH. THEN THE CLASS WOULDN'T BE SO BORING HOLY CRAP. Sorry. He just annoys me.
This weekend though was interesting. I discovered yesterday afternoon that it is very difficult to do your homework when you don't physically have your textbooks. I ordered them from Amazon Wednesday night and they're supposed to arrive tomorrow! I'll probably pick them up tomorrow after my FP. I can finally not feel insufficient in Latin and English. Thank god. I hate having to borrow books from people. I hate feeling like I owe people things.
But yeah. I get to see TS in class tomorrow and I'm probably too excited for it. Oh well. Sue me, people. I also get to spend another 70 minutes in an English class and I am so excited. I don't know if you've noticed, but I love English classes. I just love them. They're so much fun. And people don't like English.... I don't understand those people. How can you not like English? English is fucking awesome. So much fun.
I'll talk to you next week, blogosphere.
Allons-y, Allonso.
PS. Doctor Who this week was awesome. Go watch the Girl Who Waited right now.
PPS: If you're able to watch this video and not have a huge desire to watch Doctor Who after it, I don't know what's wrong with you.
I'm at college.
Yes, you heard me right. I, Joella Travis, am now officially a poor college student. Today marks my 7th complete day at college, and my eighth day overall.
College so far is a lot of fun. For one thing, the campus is gorgeous. I swear that every other person that I talk to is a Doctor Who fan. It's awesome. Also, it seems like everyone is from the Chicago area. Every person: Me: "Where are you from?" Them: "Chicago area." Every. Single. Time.
I miss Orientation Week. We got free meals, and my orientation group leader was awesome. He checked me in for registration on Saturday and said something like "Oh, you're in my orientation group!" First thing I thought? "Oh my god he sounds so gay." And then my first orientation group meeting happened. Oh man. That was so awkward. Then again, icebreaker games always are. At the end of the week, I still couldn't name everyone in my orientation group. Oh well. At the end of the first meeting, the only names I remembered were the name of my orientation leader (Michael) and this guy who will be known as "The Situation" from now on, or TS. The Situation is about my height, spiky hair about the same color as mine, blue eyes (maybe) and he always walks around with his sunglasses on the back of his head carrying a skateboard. He fascinates me.
Anyway. The orientation meetings were always a kick. I skipped the second one because I didn't know about it, and I was watching Doctor Who, okay? A girl has to have her priorities straight. I can only stay away from the internet for so long. But the third one was a diversity exercise, and that one was definitely interesting. They put two orientation groups together in a room in Old Main and asked generic questions, and you were supposed to go to one side of the room or the other, depending on if you agreed or disagreed with the statement. Some statements that stuck out were "Islam is a religion that promotes terrorism"; "Everyone has a right to get married"; "People with mental disorders should not be discriminated against in consideration for a job," etc. The Islam one really grinded my gears because I think it's way too close to 9/11. (btw: happy ten-year anniversary for 9/11. I'm celebrating because it's my mom's birthday. Yes. Best birthday present ever. Man, people suck some time.) Everyone but two people were on the "disagree" side for that one. One of the guys who agreed with the statement said that he agreed because he hates all religions and said that he believes that God tells everyone what to do, and that he told the terrorists to bomb New York. Yeah. He was kind of annoying. Oh well. I only had to deal with him that one night. And then most everyone was on the agree side for the 'everyone has a right to be married' one... except then someone (don't remember their name) had to open their mouth and say something about what if a 60-year-old wants to marry a 15-year-old. And then a bunch of people went over to the disagree side. Sigh. I took it to mean that everyone has a right to get married regardless of their sexual orientation. So. Yeah.
Michael didn't have much to say over the next couple of days, so one day he took us on a tour of the basements around campus, and then the next day he took us on a tour of the area around Galesburg. It was pretty cool.
And then classes started. I'm taking ENG 120: Intro to Lit, Latin 101 and my first-year preciptorial (commonly called FP) is How Water Shapes Humanity. Fancy, right? Only problem is that the FP is not so much fun... I've only had one day of class, but it's not what I was expecting. At all. Oh well. I'm going to talk to the teacher after class tomorrow, and see if I can get a better feel of what it's going to be like. It could be that I'm just not used to science courses, despite my dad being a brain scientist. Or something. I dunno. Science courses are not my forte, but I need to get used to taking courses I don't particularly want, because I will have to do that.
English class is awesome though, and not just because TS is in it, though that's always a plus. The teacher is insane and really lively and enthusiastic about the class, which is definitely good. She also enjoys going off on random tangents. For example, on Friday she was in the middle of saying something when she looked up at the ceiling and noticed a wasp flying around one of the lights. She then said, "I wonder if that wasp is going to fly down and sting me. That would be bad." And then she went on to explain how Old Main (the building the classroom is in) gets infested with wasps every spring and fall (exactly what we want to know, right?) and often she and her officemates will be standing on their desks with cans of RAID in their hands. It was hilarious.
Latin is going to be okay, I think. The teacher is kind of dry, but right now we're just going over basic pronunciation stuff. I'm hoping once we get past that, the class will get a lot better. There's this one guy though that will not stopping asking questions. It's so infuriating. He then asks followup questions to his questions and doesn't let the teacher teach for more than three minutes. It's kind of ridiculous. JUST LET THE WOMAN TEACH. THEN THE CLASS WOULDN'T BE SO BORING HOLY CRAP. Sorry. He just annoys me.
This weekend though was interesting. I discovered yesterday afternoon that it is very difficult to do your homework when you don't physically have your textbooks. I ordered them from Amazon Wednesday night and they're supposed to arrive tomorrow! I'll probably pick them up tomorrow after my FP. I can finally not feel insufficient in Latin and English. Thank god. I hate having to borrow books from people. I hate feeling like I owe people things.
But yeah. I get to see TS in class tomorrow and I'm probably too excited for it. Oh well. Sue me, people. I also get to spend another 70 minutes in an English class and I am so excited. I don't know if you've noticed, but I love English classes. I just love them. They're so much fun. And people don't like English.... I don't understand those people. How can you not like English? English is fucking awesome. So much fun.
I'll talk to you next week, blogosphere.
Allons-y, Allonso.
PS. Doctor Who this week was awesome. Go watch the Girl Who Waited right now.
PPS: If you're able to watch this video and not have a huge desire to watch Doctor Who after it, I don't know what's wrong with you.
Monday, August 29, 2011
It's the Final Countdown
Four weeks gone by, and no update. Oh my. This is my sad state... I always think of reasons why I shouldn't blog. I'm too tired, it's too late, I have other things I should be doing, I don't have time to. I need to focus on this. I really don't want this to be another failed project. I need to hold myself to this, even if the post is a day late... I really want this to happen.
... I'm going to stop starting every blog post with a coaching and a reminder that I want this to happen. Yeah.
Anyway. It's my last week in Fairfield. I have five days left here. And then I'm off to college. I never thought I'd be at this point. ...Well. I knew I would be at this point. I knew that some day, in the distant future, I'd be within a week of leaving for college. I just never thought that it would creep up on me as quickly as it has.
I'm really excited for college. I am more than ready to be independent and make all my decisions, but I'm a little scared at the same time. Mostly sad, though. I'm scared that I'll fail on my own, but I need to leave. I need to be independent and prove to myself that I am able to take care of myself if I need to. I'm definitely going to be sad that I'm leaving Fairfield. I complain about how small it is and how there's nothing to do here (which is true), but I do genuinely love it. I've grown up here. It's the only home I have ever known. It's going to be weird walking around campus and not seeing these familiar faces.
I think one of the strangest things though is that once I leave, I won't be anybody special. I have this familiar label of being ~Fred Travis's daughter~ since my dad is one of MUM's most esteemed faculty members, and I won't have that anymore. No one at Knox will know who my dad is, and that is going to be really nice, though weird at first. It's not a normal shift at work if I don't get mistaken for one of my sisters - usually Dariana, since just about everyone from MUM knows her - or if somebody asks me if I'm Fred Travis's daughter. It'll be nice that I can start fresh in a sense, I can just worry about being myself and doing the best I can; I don't have to live up to anybody's expectations because I'm the daughter of one of the faculty. I can just be me. I'm looking forward to it.
I've been spending a lot of time with Amy lately. It's the end of her first week back at school, and we've been basically inseparable since she got back. I spent Monday night at her dorm room watching Scrubs, we worked together Tuesday and Wednesday, I didn't see her Thursday, we worked together Friday and Saturday, and we hung out both before and after I worked today watching Scrubs. I'm going to miss being able to see her almost whenever I want, but I will be back in two-and-a-half months for Thanksgiving. And since I'm only two hours away I will be able to come home when I need to get away. She's definitely one of my best friends, and I really value her friendship. It (along with having Kenz as my friend) made the last two years of high school a lot more bearable. They've both helped me find who I am and done so much for me and I really appreciate it. Thanks to Amy I actually have a bit of a girly side, which to be honest I really needed. I've always kind of found clothes to be fun, but I didn't want to be that typical teenage girl who is super giggly and obsessed with clothes and boys. Thanks to Amy, I now accept that I have the side of me who is giggly and loves clothes. I'm not obsessed with boys, but I'm definitely no longer scared to appreciate their looks. Thanks to Amy and Kenz, I'm no longer scared to show my nerdy, dorky side like I was throughout my first couple of years of high school. I don't feel like I have to change to fit in - I will find friends who appreciate me for who I am. I have friends who appreciate me, and it's so nice.
This entire post shows how much I can ramble when I have the freedom to write however much I want to. This post is a hot mess, but it's what I'm thinking right now at 12:30am. Muse is nice. I missed having urges to write. More muses every week, please and thank you!
Here's to my last week in Fairfield. It will be a doozy. Allons-y
... I'm going to stop starting every blog post with a coaching and a reminder that I want this to happen. Yeah.
Anyway. It's my last week in Fairfield. I have five days left here. And then I'm off to college. I never thought I'd be at this point. ...Well. I knew I would be at this point. I knew that some day, in the distant future, I'd be within a week of leaving for college. I just never thought that it would creep up on me as quickly as it has.
I'm really excited for college. I am more than ready to be independent and make all my decisions, but I'm a little scared at the same time. Mostly sad, though. I'm scared that I'll fail on my own, but I need to leave. I need to be independent and prove to myself that I am able to take care of myself if I need to. I'm definitely going to be sad that I'm leaving Fairfield. I complain about how small it is and how there's nothing to do here (which is true), but I do genuinely love it. I've grown up here. It's the only home I have ever known. It's going to be weird walking around campus and not seeing these familiar faces.
I think one of the strangest things though is that once I leave, I won't be anybody special. I have this familiar label of being ~Fred Travis's daughter~ since my dad is one of MUM's most esteemed faculty members, and I won't have that anymore. No one at Knox will know who my dad is, and that is going to be really nice, though weird at first. It's not a normal shift at work if I don't get mistaken for one of my sisters - usually Dariana, since just about everyone from MUM knows her - or if somebody asks me if I'm Fred Travis's daughter. It'll be nice that I can start fresh in a sense, I can just worry about being myself and doing the best I can; I don't have to live up to anybody's expectations because I'm the daughter of one of the faculty. I can just be me. I'm looking forward to it.
I've been spending a lot of time with Amy lately. It's the end of her first week back at school, and we've been basically inseparable since she got back. I spent Monday night at her dorm room watching Scrubs, we worked together Tuesday and Wednesday, I didn't see her Thursday, we worked together Friday and Saturday, and we hung out both before and after I worked today watching Scrubs. I'm going to miss being able to see her almost whenever I want, but I will be back in two-and-a-half months for Thanksgiving. And since I'm only two hours away I will be able to come home when I need to get away. She's definitely one of my best friends, and I really value her friendship. It (along with having Kenz as my friend) made the last two years of high school a lot more bearable. They've both helped me find who I am and done so much for me and I really appreciate it. Thanks to Amy I actually have a bit of a girly side, which to be honest I really needed. I've always kind of found clothes to be fun, but I didn't want to be that typical teenage girl who is super giggly and obsessed with clothes and boys. Thanks to Amy, I now accept that I have the side of me who is giggly and loves clothes. I'm not obsessed with boys, but I'm definitely no longer scared to appreciate their looks. Thanks to Amy and Kenz, I'm no longer scared to show my nerdy, dorky side like I was throughout my first couple of years of high school. I don't feel like I have to change to fit in - I will find friends who appreciate me for who I am. I have friends who appreciate me, and it's so nice.
This entire post shows how much I can ramble when I have the freedom to write however much I want to. This post is a hot mess, but it's what I'm thinking right now at 12:30am. Muse is nice. I missed having urges to write. More muses every week, please and thank you!
Here's to my last week in Fairfield. It will be a doozy. Allons-y
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Raising My Wand in Support.
Happy last day of July, everybody!
It's Harry Potter's birthday today, and I felt that it would be appropriate to have this blog be centered around how much the boy wizard means to me.
How much does Harry Potter mean to me? Well, he means the world to me.
I would not be the avid reader I am today if it weren't for the Potter series. Before I started reading Potter, I certainly enjoyed reading, but it wasn't until after I started reading the series that I would often be found with my nose buried in a book.
A lot of people I know write the series off as one for kids, as something silly, as a poorly-written excuse for a kids novel. They don't get it. They don't get that it's real for me and for so many others. The Harry Potter series taught me many of the crucial lessons and skills people need in their lives. Harry taught me to be brave, to not give up on my friends and to be accepting of all people - that everyone has something to contribute, even't if it doesn't appear that way initially. Hermione taught me that it's okay to be smart. Neville taught me to believe in myself, to not give up and try my best. Ron showed me what it was to be loyal, never giving up on your friends. Above all, the series taught me that you're stronger united than divided, and that good will triumph over evil.
Harry Potter isn't just a character in a book - he's my friend. And he's many other people's friend too. We've all grown up with him: laughed with him, suffered through the awkward teenage years when nothing is right with him, cried with him, grown up with him. And he's always been there when we needed to cry or escape from the world. All we needed to do was open a book and be transported to a fantastic land of wizards and dragons and a magical school.
Without Harry Potter, I do not know if I would have the love of English and books that I do today. I would be a lot sadder than I am. Thanks to Harry and JK Rowling, I know that if I need a pickmeup, I can just crack open one of seven amazing books and instantly be transported away.
So, thank you, Jo Rowling. Thank you for everything.
It's Harry Potter's birthday today, and I felt that it would be appropriate to have this blog be centered around how much the boy wizard means to me.
How much does Harry Potter mean to me? Well, he means the world to me.
I would not be the avid reader I am today if it weren't for the Potter series. Before I started reading Potter, I certainly enjoyed reading, but it wasn't until after I started reading the series that I would often be found with my nose buried in a book.
A lot of people I know write the series off as one for kids, as something silly, as a poorly-written excuse for a kids novel. They don't get it. They don't get that it's real for me and for so many others. The Harry Potter series taught me many of the crucial lessons and skills people need in their lives. Harry taught me to be brave, to not give up on my friends and to be accepting of all people - that everyone has something to contribute, even't if it doesn't appear that way initially. Hermione taught me that it's okay to be smart. Neville taught me to believe in myself, to not give up and try my best. Ron showed me what it was to be loyal, never giving up on your friends. Above all, the series taught me that you're stronger united than divided, and that good will triumph over evil.
Harry Potter isn't just a character in a book - he's my friend. And he's many other people's friend too. We've all grown up with him: laughed with him, suffered through the awkward teenage years when nothing is right with him, cried with him, grown up with him. And he's always been there when we needed to cry or escape from the world. All we needed to do was open a book and be transported to a fantastic land of wizards and dragons and a magical school.
Without Harry Potter, I do not know if I would have the love of English and books that I do today. I would be a lot sadder than I am. Thanks to Harry and JK Rowling, I know that if I need a pickmeup, I can just crack open one of seven amazing books and instantly be transported away.
So, thank you, Jo Rowling. Thank you for everything.
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Cicadas are the soundtrack of my summer
Alrightio. I think this is try number.....five hundred forty-seven or something to get a regular blog going. It's actually only try four or five, but it feels like it's try number five-four-seven. I know I can do this, I just have to remember to do it. I always remember at awkward hours, like 2am on a Thursday night or while I'm at work or taking a shower or something, always times that I can't get to a computer and write up a blog post. Regardless of all my excuses for not blogging since May 15th (all the excuses consisted of I forgot/I was too busy watching shows on Netflix/stalking tumblr), I'm going to try to blog more. I'm definitely going to try for once a weekend, and maybe another post during the week if I have something I want to say/write something I really like and want to share it and get feedback.
Anyway. My life has been very busy since I last blogged over two months ago. I graduated high school, went to DestinationImagination Global Finals to support my sister's DI team, I flew down to Texas the next week for my best friend's graduation from high school, and then I worked a bunch until I went to Ithaca, NY the beginning of July to help my sister Dariana look for apartments and a job, as she and her roommate Kim will be moving there this weekend. In addition, I spent a week down in Florida for LeakyCon 2011, where I met many of my friends from the MuggleCast Fan Forums - all of whom I have been friends with since my freshman year of high school, but I just met a couple of weeks ago.
LeakyCon was, in a single word, insane. It was very poorly organized, leading to me choosing to spend plenty of time hanging out with my friends instead of going to programming. Of all the programming, I only went to the wizard rock shows Thursday and Friday night, and the last ten or fifteen minutes of the Luna, Percy and the Kids keynote on Saturday. I would have gone to more of it, but Saturday was my only chance to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, so I chose the themepark over the Luna, Percy & the Kids event. I didn't officially meet Evanna Lynch, but I saw her on multiple occasions: she was up on stage during The Remus Lupins' set, the Whomping Willows' set (She danced her Nargles dance during 'I Believe in Nargles! It was adorable and amazing.), Draco and the Malfoys' set (I think), and she played bass during one of Harry and the Potters' songs. Seeing her there in front of me was so surreal; this person who I knew as Luna and only saw her on the screen was this real person who is just as big of a Potter fan as I am. It was amazing.
I could probably write an entire blogpost about the themepark, but I think I'll save that for another post - maybe one of my midweek posts. There's a lot more I want to say in this post. To finish the LeakyCon section (ugh, terrible transition. Good thing this isn't a conclusion paragraph. Well, it is, but it's not a concluding paragraph for the entire post. Just for the LeakyCon section.), I'll just say that all my friends are completely lovely and I really hope that we can meet up in Chicago some time this upcoming school year, as I won't be able to make it to Wrockstock and I don't know if I'll be able to make it to Ascendio/LeakyCon next summer (if LeakyCon 2012 happens, that is). I really hope I'll be able to make it to a Con next summer, because I really want to be able to see my friends again. LeakyCon just reminded me how much I cherish my online friends, and I'm so glad I joined the MCFF back in seventh or eight grade. 2007 or 2008. Wow. Have I really been friends with these people for five years? It hasn't felt like that long at all.
Moving on from LeakyCon/MCFF reminiscing, we're up to now, where I have been working a ton to help my parents pay for college. College has been a whole 'nother ball of stress. I start at Knox in a little over five weeks, and I honestly can't believe it. I'm definitely ready to move out of Fairfield and experience what life outside my little protected bubble is like, as well as be completely independent and make decisions for myself - what I eat and when I eat, when I sleep, when I go to class - but at the same time I'm extremely nervous. I'm used to relying on my parents for everything, and very soon I'll have to rely on me to take care of myself. It's a scary thought, but I'm looking forward to it.
I also selected my courses I'll be taking in the fall, or at least I chose the courses I'd like to take, regardless of what class period they'd be in (all of which seemed to be sixth period, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Not helpful.). For my first-year preceptorial, I chose the Learning to See Water one - discussions about what is invisible to us in the world around us, much like water is invisible to a fish. For the other two classes, I chose an Introduction to Literature course and a Philosophy course - Creative Reasoning. I'm quite excited for Intro to Lit: Knox's English department is fantastic, and I love English, literature and everything to do with it. The Philosophy course should be quite interesting as well - it'll basically be a course in critical thinking, which I desperately need. And Philosophy is just fascinating in itself. I'm excited. We'll see what courses I'll get when I arrive for freshman orientation on September 3rd. I can't wait to go to college.
I'll probably post more once I start college, since I'll probably be posting the stuff I write for my Intro to Lit course. I don't know. We'll see.
This thing is starting to wind down, and I really want to start watching Battlestar, mainly so Keith will get off my back for watching it, but also because I do genuinely want to watch it. And, don't get me wrong, I love Scrubs, but it's starting to feel a little repetitive, and Dr Cox is the only character who really has any development - the other characters do, but it's not as noticeable as Dr. Cox's development. I'll definitely still finish the series though - I'm 3.5 seasons in, and I want to watch the rest of it. I'll just watch Battlestar on the side.
Alrighty. Goodnight, blogger. I'll post again on Sunday. Hold me to it if I forget!!
Allons-y, Alonso.
Anyway. My life has been very busy since I last blogged over two months ago. I graduated high school, went to DestinationImagination Global Finals to support my sister's DI team, I flew down to Texas the next week for my best friend's graduation from high school, and then I worked a bunch until I went to Ithaca, NY the beginning of July to help my sister Dariana look for apartments and a job, as she and her roommate Kim will be moving there this weekend. In addition, I spent a week down in Florida for LeakyCon 2011, where I met many of my friends from the MuggleCast Fan Forums - all of whom I have been friends with since my freshman year of high school, but I just met a couple of weeks ago.
LeakyCon was, in a single word, insane. It was very poorly organized, leading to me choosing to spend plenty of time hanging out with my friends instead of going to programming. Of all the programming, I only went to the wizard rock shows Thursday and Friday night, and the last ten or fifteen minutes of the Luna, Percy and the Kids keynote on Saturday. I would have gone to more of it, but Saturday was my only chance to go to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, so I chose the themepark over the Luna, Percy & the Kids event. I didn't officially meet Evanna Lynch, but I saw her on multiple occasions: she was up on stage during The Remus Lupins' set, the Whomping Willows' set (She danced her Nargles dance during 'I Believe in Nargles! It was adorable and amazing.), Draco and the Malfoys' set (I think), and she played bass during one of Harry and the Potters' songs. Seeing her there in front of me was so surreal; this person who I knew as Luna and only saw her on the screen was this real person who is just as big of a Potter fan as I am. It was amazing.
I could probably write an entire blogpost about the themepark, but I think I'll save that for another post - maybe one of my midweek posts. There's a lot more I want to say in this post. To finish the LeakyCon section (ugh, terrible transition. Good thing this isn't a conclusion paragraph. Well, it is, but it's not a concluding paragraph for the entire post. Just for the LeakyCon section.), I'll just say that all my friends are completely lovely and I really hope that we can meet up in Chicago some time this upcoming school year, as I won't be able to make it to Wrockstock and I don't know if I'll be able to make it to Ascendio/LeakyCon next summer (if LeakyCon 2012 happens, that is). I really hope I'll be able to make it to a Con next summer, because I really want to be able to see my friends again. LeakyCon just reminded me how much I cherish my online friends, and I'm so glad I joined the MCFF back in seventh or eight grade. 2007 or 2008. Wow. Have I really been friends with these people for five years? It hasn't felt like that long at all.
Moving on from LeakyCon/MCFF reminiscing, we're up to now, where I have been working a ton to help my parents pay for college. College has been a whole 'nother ball of stress. I start at Knox in a little over five weeks, and I honestly can't believe it. I'm definitely ready to move out of Fairfield and experience what life outside my little protected bubble is like, as well as be completely independent and make decisions for myself - what I eat and when I eat, when I sleep, when I go to class - but at the same time I'm extremely nervous. I'm used to relying on my parents for everything, and very soon I'll have to rely on me to take care of myself. It's a scary thought, but I'm looking forward to it.
I also selected my courses I'll be taking in the fall, or at least I chose the courses I'd like to take, regardless of what class period they'd be in (all of which seemed to be sixth period, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Not helpful.). For my first-year preceptorial, I chose the Learning to See Water one - discussions about what is invisible to us in the world around us, much like water is invisible to a fish. For the other two classes, I chose an Introduction to Literature course and a Philosophy course - Creative Reasoning. I'm quite excited for Intro to Lit: Knox's English department is fantastic, and I love English, literature and everything to do with it. The Philosophy course should be quite interesting as well - it'll basically be a course in critical thinking, which I desperately need. And Philosophy is just fascinating in itself. I'm excited. We'll see what courses I'll get when I arrive for freshman orientation on September 3rd. I can't wait to go to college.
I'll probably post more once I start college, since I'll probably be posting the stuff I write for my Intro to Lit course. I don't know. We'll see.
This thing is starting to wind down, and I really want to start watching Battlestar, mainly so Keith will get off my back for watching it, but also because I do genuinely want to watch it. And, don't get me wrong, I love Scrubs, but it's starting to feel a little repetitive, and Dr Cox is the only character who really has any development - the other characters do, but it's not as noticeable as Dr. Cox's development. I'll definitely still finish the series though - I'm 3.5 seasons in, and I want to watch the rest of it. I'll just watch Battlestar on the side.
Alrighty. Goodnight, blogger. I'll post again on Sunday. Hold me to it if I forget!!
Allons-y, Alonso.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
LeakyCon....LineCon....LOLCon...Whatever you want to call it-Con.
Alrighty. Hello again, Blogger. Yes, it's been a while. Over two months. So much for weekly blogposts, eh? I'll try and start regular posts again on Sunday, but for now I'd like to share my top five favorite LeakyCon moments.
In no particular order:
In no particular order:
1) Meeting everyone from MCFF who I’d been friends with for 3-4 years but I hadn’t met yet. Meeting them was everything I had hoped it would be and even more. And I’m really glad that our friendship translated to irl as well as it does online.
2) Everything about the park. The Forbidden Journey, going in all the stores, Ollivanders, the fact that Moaning Myrtle screamed at you from the bathroom…. everything. Everything was just brilliant. It was a Harry Potter geek's dream.
3) The movie. Oh my goodness the movie. Seeing it for the first time with all my best friends was absolutely perfect. I can't imagine what it will be like seeing it again without them.
4) Being independent for a week. Choosing when I slept, when I ate, what I do, etc. gave me a taste of what college will be like next year, and made me that much more excited for it.
5) Going on a spiel at Alex Carpenter about how much Summer ‘09 sucked and how miserable I was and how his music kept me going and it was the one thing that made me somewhat happy that summer, and thanking him for everything and actually starting to cry a bit, and then him ending it with hugging me super tightly for a long time and saying “I am so glad we’re friends.” (Run-on sentence is extremely run-on. I do not care.) I don’t care WHAT anyone says about that man, he is one of the sweetest and most genuine people I’ve ever met, and he actually cares about his fans. He’s so amazing and I just love him so much.
…. number five was not supposed to be that long. Whatevs, whatevs. I have no regrets.
Okay. Hopefully will be back in a couple days for a regular post. We'll see. Until then.
Allons-y, Allonso.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
All I ask is that you'll be there when I return
So here we are, at the first of what will hopefully be a regular series of posts. We'll see what happens next week, eh?
Like much of the senior class at FHS I'm sure, pretty much the only thing on my mind this past week is that the last day of school is Friday, May 20th, which is coincidentally this upcoming Friday. Five days.
Five days.
Five days is nothing. I've been counting down with Emily in Econ ever since we found out the last day for seniors, which was back in March, I think. Back then, it was either 57 or 62 days (I can't remember which) and now it's just five days. Five measly days and then I'm done with the emotional rollar coaster that was my high school experience.
This past week already began my lasts. On Monday, I started drafting my last essay for Comp. On Wednesday, I handed said essay in (a persuasive analysis on banned books). On Thursday, I took my last chapter test in Econ, and got my best grade I've gotten on a test in that class. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday didn't hold any lasts, but this week will hold plenty of them.
For starters, it will be the last five days of high school. The last Monday, the last Tuesday, the last Wednesday, the last Thursday, the last Friday. On Tuesday, I'm taking my last Economics test. Tomorrow, I'm learning what my finals for Composition and World Lit will consist of. I'll also be studying for my Econ test, which I haven't studied for because if senior year has taught me anything, it's that I'm a huge procrastinator.
Tuesday will also mark my little sister Avery's last birthday I will experience as a high school student, and it will also mark my last shift I work as a high school senior, because on Friday I will be done with high school when I go into work at 4pm.
It's so mind-boggling to think about... that I, Joella Travis, will be done with high school in five short days. It's been a crazy ride this past year, but I have definitely enjoyed it. I can't wait to see how it will end this upcoming week.
I feel like I should say something else but I don't think there's anything else to say. At least if there is, I can't think of it.
Until the last day of high school, everybody. See you then.
Geronimo
I feel like I should say something else but I don't think there's anything else to say. At least if there is, I can't think of it.
Until the last day of high school, everybody. See you then.
Geronimo
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Well then.
I definitely just opened this page, began to type something, and then somehow managed to close the tab. I am clearly fantastic at this.
Anyway. Yes, I am actually posting a blog. No, it is not a myth. (Myth busted! Watching MythBusters as I post this. Best show ever.) Yes, I know that the last time I posted a post was about 16 months ago. No, I'm not sorry about that. Okay, that's a lie. I am kind of sorry about that. When I actually do it, I really like blogging. It's cathartic and a really nice way to dump my mind out onto paper and categorize my thoughts. I just like writing my thoughts out, be it in a journal (which I kind of want to start doing again, but hey. One thing at a time right now.) or online in a blog, putting my thoughts out there for everybody to see and judge, if they wish. Just as long as they don't post hater comments. Maybe it's because I grew up in a very accepting community, I really can't deal with haters. It's not so bad if it's not directed at me, but if it's about something or somebody I really care about, I get super defensive. And if it's directed at me and is about me? yeah, I completely fold. Not so proud about that, but that's just the way I am.
Back to the point of this post. I'm going to reboot this blog. At least, I'm going to attempt to. Right now, the plan is to post once a week (I'm going to go with either Saturday or Sunday) about my week, and whatever I want to post about. I'm going to see if I can keep this up through all four years of college. I doubt it will actually happen, but it's a challenge to do something that I really enjoy doing. I hope I can stay motivated. I'd love to have a public journal to look back on over my college experience once I actually finish college.
I thought I was going to delete all my posts on here except for the most recent one so I can start with what is essentially a clean slate, but then I went back and read them and I got really nostalgic for last year, even though I only posted like five times, so I decided to keep the entries. Like, Charlie the German Australian. Man, I miss that guy. He was fun to work with. I feel like Keith is a pretty decent replacement for him, even if Keith can be a bit of a jerk sometimes.
I think that's all for now. I'll see you on Sunday?
Joella out.
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