Newsletter Number 3!
Well ladies and gents, this is the last newsletter of the quarter, and year. Crazy how fast time flies, isn’t it? One day the school year has just started, and the next FINALS are just around the corner, almost literally. Luckily, for you, this will be a short letter. You are allowed to cheer, as I'm sure you are. :D
I can’t say I'm not excited to go home, because I am beyond a shadow of a doubt, but I'm really going to miss this place and these people. It’s become like my other home. People in Oakland, or friends from school, ask when I’m coming/going home and I get confused. Everything here is so in place, so comfortable and familiar. Everything just fits. And when I go back to Oakland, it fits there too. Will I be one of those people forced to choose between two places she loves? Will Oakland be home for me again once I get there and will it take me forever to settle back into school after break?
As I mentioned, finals have quickly sneaked up on me, jumping out from the corner of time and bliss to sucker-punch me. And it hurt. Lately have been long nights and early mornings, study jams and paper cuts from page turnings. I realized that I'm not the information magnet I believed myself to be, as I read over books, because there were whole pages I didn’t remember reading. Not that I didn’t read them, I just completely forgot what they were about… Shame on me, right? That’s what studying and review sessions are for, said my friend. Yes, this is true, but I’d like to retain the information for at least three months. I just made myself out to be a really bad student, and I'm not, there are just certain things (like Levi-Strauss and Barthes or the chemical make up of Saturn) that slip my mind.
This is a bit random, though I'm sure many of you know what I'm talking out. Stress leads to breakouts, right? And breakouts lead to stress. How does this cycle ever end?
I’ve learned things, this first quarter of college. Little and big things, about people and life, and how to deal. I’ve realized I'm not Superwoman and I never will be; I’ve found that sleep is indeed an important factor in life; I’ve learned that newsletters are appreciated only when they aren’t six pages long; I’ve discovered the fact that id you give a college student a jar of salsa, no chips but salsa, it will be gone the next day no matter what (I don’t know if he drank it, or what, but it was all finished the next morning); I’ve learned that most RAs are wonderful people are some are just power hungry little shits that will write you up for singing happy birthday 20 minutes before quiet hours; I’ve found that times don’t necessarily mean anything when it comes to late night dining and trips to the coffee shop; and lastly I’ve found out that I really and truly do love learning. I am a vacuum for its dusty existence, sucking it up as I go along.
And as the quarter ends and I prepare for finals and going home, I realize that life isn’t always easy or fun, but there is nothing I will ever enjoy more than it.
I'm certain I will see you all before the next newsletter so I leave you with Cheers, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year.
Love, Kate
“I went all the way to Paris to forget your face
Captured in stained glass, young lives long since passed
Statues of lovers every place
I went all across the continent to relieve this restless love
I walked through the ruins, icons of glory
Smashed by the bombs from above
So we must love while these moments are still called today
Take part in the pain of this passion play
Stretching our youth as we must, until we are ashes to dust
Until time makes history of us”
-Indigo Girls, “History of Us”
I can’t say I'm not excited to go home, because I am beyond a shadow of a doubt, but I'm really going to miss this place and these people. It’s become like my other home. People in Oakland, or friends from school, ask when I’m coming/going home and I get confused. Everything here is so in place, so comfortable and familiar. Everything just fits. And when I go back to Oakland, it fits there too. Will I be one of those people forced to choose between two places she loves? Will Oakland be home for me again once I get there and will it take me forever to settle back into school after break?
As I mentioned, finals have quickly sneaked up on me, jumping out from the corner of time and bliss to sucker-punch me. And it hurt. Lately have been long nights and early mornings, study jams and paper cuts from page turnings. I realized that I'm not the information magnet I believed myself to be, as I read over books, because there were whole pages I didn’t remember reading. Not that I didn’t read them, I just completely forgot what they were about… Shame on me, right? That’s what studying and review sessions are for, said my friend. Yes, this is true, but I’d like to retain the information for at least three months. I just made myself out to be a really bad student, and I'm not, there are just certain things (like Levi-Strauss and Barthes or the chemical make up of Saturn) that slip my mind.
This is a bit random, though I'm sure many of you know what I'm talking out. Stress leads to breakouts, right? And breakouts lead to stress. How does this cycle ever end?
I’ve learned things, this first quarter of college. Little and big things, about people and life, and how to deal. I’ve realized I'm not Superwoman and I never will be; I’ve found that sleep is indeed an important factor in life; I’ve learned that newsletters are appreciated only when they aren’t six pages long; I’ve discovered the fact that id you give a college student a jar of salsa, no chips but salsa, it will be gone the next day no matter what (I don’t know if he drank it, or what, but it was all finished the next morning); I’ve learned that most RAs are wonderful people are some are just power hungry little shits that will write you up for singing happy birthday 20 minutes before quiet hours; I’ve found that times don’t necessarily mean anything when it comes to late night dining and trips to the coffee shop; and lastly I’ve found out that I really and truly do love learning. I am a vacuum for its dusty existence, sucking it up as I go along.
And as the quarter ends and I prepare for finals and going home, I realize that life isn’t always easy or fun, but there is nothing I will ever enjoy more than it.
I'm certain I will see you all before the next newsletter so I leave you with Cheers, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year.
Love, Kate
“I went all the way to Paris to forget your face
Captured in stained glass, young lives long since passed
Statues of lovers every place
I went all across the continent to relieve this restless love
I walked through the ruins, icons of glory
Smashed by the bombs from above
So we must love while these moments are still called today
Take part in the pain of this passion play
Stretching our youth as we must, until we are ashes to dust
Until time makes history of us”
-Indigo Girls, “History of Us”