English Major?

~If you can speak three languages you're trilingual. If you can speak two languages you're bilingual. If you can speak only one language you're an American.

~Author Unknown

First off, what possessed me to become an English major. This is not what I like to do. Read seventy page poem things that are supposedly miraculous. Bleh! Who decided that?

I just want to write. To read things that are from THIS time period. Maybe the wrong view for an English major. Sorry. But that's how it is. I love reading. I do. But I like to read things I like. Duh, I know.

And the French thing, I understand. Learning the structure of another language teaches me about my own. But the fact that that one class requires more of my time than any other, is ridiculous.

There's my little rant. If I could just take creative writing classes I would. And religion. I actually do like those ones-even if they are CLASSES-with test and essays and everything. Not like institute, but at least I'm getting credit for it, right?

I thought many times last year how I would change my major just to get out of taking French. But I am smart enough to realize I would have to take math or science or something else I have just as hard a time with then...

There went my dreams of going into architecture...

But soon I'll be able to say I studied English-even though I will have forgotten the plot or structure or hidden meanings of "Beowulf."

Mistakes

~You will turn over many a futile new leaf till you learn we must all write on scratched-out pages.

~Mignon McLaughlin

You know those times when you say something remarkably stupid. Wish you could take it back. Freak out inside every time you think about it...

Pretty sure I have one of those moments everyday.

No really. I do say stupid things every single day of my life. But I'm talking about the things you really wish you could take back. Like when you didn't think about how you worded something and as it's coming out of your mouth you just know the other person is going to take it wrong. And even when you apologize and explain yourself, you're never really sure how they feel about it.

Or you misunderstand someone and answer incorrectly based on what you thought. (Happens to me ALL the time in French). Yep, pretty much I just had to say that. Cuz it's frustrating me.

A Thursday...

~Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.

~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I could totally fall asleep right now. Which is sad cuz I got eight hours of sleep last night... and it's not even four. But when I nap, I nap for at least three hours...

Starting this post with no actual direction... I think I forgot how much stress comes with school. Not trying to be negative either. Just, there's more than just homework and class and studying. There's the shopping and cooking and laundry and payments and deadlines with registration and housing and scholarships. Haha, like there's always something I'm gonna forget.

I'm feeling slightly stranded here without my car. Not like I usually drove it everyday... just knowing it was there ~sigh~

Haha, don't mean to be dramatic. Ya, I couldn't drive it up here so I'll get it next weekend. By the way! My ankle is doing so well! I walked with the whole bottom of my foot today! And only a slight limp! I'm still using braces and icing and limping for caution, but I'm pretty excited :)

So, there's always a class you dread the most. At least, for me there is. Really sucks when the class you dread is the one you have every day. French will be the death of me. And if not me, my GPA.

And then there's at least one assignment that the teacher tells you about the first day that you just hope they'll forget about. This semester, I have to memorize and recite the first 18 lines of "The Canterbury Tales"-in middle English. Haha, not funny. It'll be cool to be able to do, but, oh my.

My teacher said that that's one of the cool things about an English major. People will hear what we majored in and laugh and ask what we could do with that or where it got us... and we'll be able to recite that...

~2010~

~We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives... not looking for flaws, but for potential.

~Ellen Goodman

Alright, gonna hear a lot about school. Haha, so I've been to all my classes now. Today was less intimidating than yesterday-though French just scares me to death in general. And I can't get my English Language site to work. Or my French one. And I'm worried about my apartment stuff online...

But I'm organizing everything and making a calender and starting homework and feeling better about getting through the semester. Getting through. How sad is that.

So, I was thinking a few weeks ago about all the things that happened to me in 2010. And I wanted to post about it-even if it is a few days after the new year :)

It's amazing to me how much can happen and change in a year. I remember the first week of 2010-moving back to Provo, starting classes. The first FHE that week and going on an interesting date with my FHE brother... which set things up for an interesting semester.

And starting classes again-and actually knowing people on this big campus. Going a month without going home (which I know shouldn't be a big deal, but I'll just say it's a good thing I go to school close to home and hope to always live close to Salt Lake). The first year "anniversary" of our carbon monoxide poisoning. Bronwen's first birthday...

Then there was the spring and finals week and dying to get out of my dorm. I remember moving out-carrying it all to my car alone in the rain. And looking around the room I'd lived in for eight months and only feeling a twinge of sadness for what could have been... and being so excited to move home.

The trip to Arizona to visit family and finally feeling free. Haha, and then there were the six to eight weeks of nothing. It was wonderful and yet I don't know how I wasted so much time. I stayed up until three or four. Slept until noon. Watched TV in my pajamas. Snacked all day. Put off getting a job or getting ready for Paris.

Accepting the offer to be set up-something I'd never thought I'd do. And having it go well. I think it was then that I was pulled out of my fog of two months. Going on my first second date and everything after that.

Having my first job interview and getting my first full-time job. Working 6:30 to 3 five days a week. Working overtime one Saturday a month. Working for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Sewing. Eight hours a day. Still can't believe I did that for five months. Or that I got as fast as I did.

The week at Snowbird with my family and trying to make the most of it because we only go every other year... and who knows where I'll be in two years. Being exhausted from work everyday and staying out until midnight or one anyway :)

Deciding not to go to Paris. Can't believe I had the chance to go to Paris and turned it down. Yet, feeling all the pressure come off with that decision. Feeling hope as the leaves started to change colors and the nights got chilly.

Putting in my two weeks at work and feeling sad even when I needed to get out of there. Working my last day and going Christmas shopping and the family party and vacation and Christmas! Loving the cold and the snow and the season. And ending the year in Jackson Hole :)

And I know there are a million things I didn't mention. And I can't even measure how much I've changed in the last year. Sometimes I wish I could. Others, I think maybe it's best that I can't.

But I'm excited for what 2011 will bring :)

Teague Liam McCool

~When babies look beyond you and giggle, maybe they're seeing angels.

~Eileen Elias Freeman

My adorable new nephew I can't wait to meet! He was born January 3, 2011 :)

First Classes

~It doesn't make much difference what you study, as long as you don't like it.

~Finley Peter Dunne

First day of classes... oh my. So, I usually have a hard time sleeping some place new. I woke up so much last night though. I had a brace on my ankle and it was cutting into my foot. I should have taken it off but I remembered the pain from the first night and every time I rolled over...

So I got up, got ready, and headed to campus-45 minutes before my first class, hobbling on crutches. Ya, those things are exhausting. I would go back and forth-crutches and limping. Limping was easier, but hurt. Haha, I probably looked pretty interesting carrying my crutches while I limped around.

Anyway, I got to my building about 25 minutes before class started and read a novel I got for Christmas :)

French 201 was first. Let's see, there was a girl from the study abroad I was going to go on. And there was a girl from my high school. I understood some of what the professor said, not as much as I wanted. We had to talk to someone and then introduce them to the class. Always fun-haha. And we got homework-and he admitted we'd have a lot.

I had an hour break before British Literary History part 1... I am not excited about that class. The class was interesting in that most English classes have at least 75% girls... I think it was almost reversed. The teacher had really good rating on rate my professor so I was excited about that. First off she gave us three reasons not to take the class...

1-we are covering over 1000 years of literature-meaning a "butt-load" of reading

2-she is a hard grader on essays and such

3-I think this one was about how she didn't skim things-such as possibly not as appropriate things. And she'll swear sometimes

She really had lots to say to make the class sound terrible. We introduced everyone and such and started material. What I want to know is how literary history teachers can talk and talk and I have no idea where they are coming from or how everything ties together...

I managed to hobble back to my apartment-I was shaking from the effort. So now I'm pretty sure I'll be in my apartment the rest of the night :) Not that I have a problem with that, I just feel like I should be busier and going and doing stuff. I don't know.

Starting Off 2011...

~New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights.

~Hamilton Wright Mabie

It's a new year! And I honestly have a ton to say. First off, I just moved into my new apartment at BYU :) School starts tomorrow... even though it doesn't feel like it.

It's gonna be a good year. I know everyone says that, but really.

January 1, 2011-snowmobiling in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I'd never been snowmobiling before. Not that I remember-(I always feel weird saying never cuz I don't remember everything from when I was a kid)

It was exciting-of course :) But also scary. Alright, I may be kind of a wuss, but I could just see myself getting injured.

Three two-person snowmobiles and we were off. Two miles in we stopped because two of the others saw a moose. They went around the trees from where we were to see it better and came back running.

They hopped on their snowmobile and took off... and crashed. But I was too busy crashing to notice. We tipped over hardly moving at all. Sounds like it should have just been funny, huh? Haha, ironic we both crashed at the same time.

But while the guy I was riding with got up fine, my foot was pinned underneath the handlebar on the side of the back seat. It hurt, we kept riding (after only two miles, I wasn't gonna ruin the trip), we went back to the condo, it was swollen, I iced it and such... long story short, I have a badly sprained ankle.

Yes, it's just a sprain, but I couldn't put any weight on it yesterday. I now have giant Ibuprofen pills, a brace, and crutches... yes, I'm supposed to use my foot, but walking to and from and all over campus... I need some help.

They are exhausting though. Tomorrow will be interesting :P Honestly though, I can see a lot of reasons why I needed this. Maybe I'll get to all that in another post though :)