Currently my life is busy, but mostly good. My work study may be ending for the semester, or I may be able to keep working until my whole year's worth of funding is exhausted. I hope the latter is true, because it would be nice to have that little extra to help me survive until my Spring semester financial aid check, which SHOULD be significantly more than the $16 I received this semester. I don't have the ridiculous new student fees or health insurance fee to pay, so that should be quite a significant chunk of change to help me survive. I just have to get there. But I'm not too worried, between tips and saying yes to everything my bosses at the pub ask of me, I should be able to save the money necessary for two months of rent. I just can't afford pizza or beer or whiskey anymore (which I REALLY want some whiskey....it's Boston, after all). Also, Math is giving me a really hard time. I was understanding the reasoning before we started using spread sheets, and now I feel like I can only get the correct result half the time, and never when I'm outside of the class room. It's something that I want to be somewhat skilled at because it's useful reasoning that I can use when looking at lists and charts when studying history. The final down side to my life as it stands right now is that I'm constantly lonely. I'm beginning to make friends, but right now they are slightly more than acquaintances, and I'm not sure which ones will survive past this semester. I miss being in a band, and I miss partying with my friends. I miss feeling loved and welcome wherever I went. I know that this loneliness will fade in time, likely by the middle of next semester, but it's currently something I have to deal with on a virtual daily basis. But lately I have been having my days where I look out the window and I know that there's nowhere else I'd rather be.
The Boston Harbor Islands are gorgeous in the fall. Reds, yellows, oranges, browns.....the colors are splendid. The air is crisp and cool and the sunsets are magnificent. I look out the window or stand outside and look over the horizon to see all the colors and I know that I made the right choice and I feel as if I never want to leave New England. The history, the weather, the colors....I love everything this region has to offer. I could make a life here eventually, but it'll take time and money. Mostly it will take friends and mobility. There's only so far I can go by T or commuter rail and I don't really want to buy a car at the moment. I've been losing a lot of weight and I want to keep it down. Having a car would cause all of that progress to begin reversing and I'm not comfortable with that idea.
I'm getting ahead of myself. I've only been in Boston for three and a half months. I'm at the transition between leaving my old life behind and fully embracing my new home. There's a lot out of this experience that I want and I'm not going to go back to California until I'm satisfied with the idea that I've gotten as much as I could out of the East Coast. I met with my advisor today and discussed my options for graduating with honors, travelling abroad, and grad school requirements. I am more or less satisfied with my course schedule for next semester, though it will again be demanding. Such is the life of a history major. As long as I pass math this semester I will be on track for a splendid GPA and I can begin the application process for my Semester at Sea, in which I will circumnavigate the world crossing both the International Dateline AND the Equator, visit five continents and twelve countries, travel overland from Yokohama to Kobe, Japan and Shanghai to Hong Kong, China. I have a lot of grand experiences ahead of me and I can't wait to live them. My life and plans will be in constant process for a while, so I can't tell with much certainty if or when I'll come back for good. But I will always visit the ones I love and I look forward to seeing the ones that love me come to visit me as well.
I'm now running out of things to talk about so I'm going to end by posting what my current desired schedule for next semester is, along with a current picture of me looking awesome.
English 262G - The Art of Literature
History 395 - The History of Boston
History 396 - America's Favorite Passtime: the History of Baseball
History 361L - The History of Modern China
I have to choose one more course, but it depends on a number of factors that have yet to be determined.
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| I have yet to weigh myself, but those are the smallest pants I've been able to wear in a decade |
