On the start of my last fall semester...

      There was a time when I was hungry for knowledge, but now I just eat. I wanted to know what every word meant, but not just in context; I wanted to know the specific usage, what the word's original meaning was, and the connotation it held. I carried a dictionary around everywhere I went despite my shoulder hurting and looking silly when I looked up "metaphysical" for the umpteenth time just to make sure I really understood what it meant. I wanted to know everything.
      Sometimes I still get that feeling, like today when I spent more of my time at Sea World on my phone figuring out how closely related killer whales are to dolphins than actually watching Shamu. I want to know things and I want to explore and I don't want to JUST know things, I want to understand them in a way that just keeps leading to more questions that need to be answered because there's always more to explore! Yes! That is an exclamation point!
      In a whirlwind of indecision during the first week of school I dropped and added classes on the drop and add deadlines until the very last second and ended up with more classes than I wanted to take and more books to read than I probably am capable of. So now I have 5 English classes and a job. I know I'm in for a hell of a semester but I'm glad. I hope it ignites the kind of fire in me that I had when I was lugging that dictionary, fat from being overused and abused and stuffed with notecards, around with me everywhere.

Things I learned in College

Things I learned in College... that most people figured out in high school.

1. I love making lists:

      Shouldn't I have known this about myself a long time ago? Who knows. I read this book a few semesters ago for my Women in Lit class and one of the main characters makes lists because there's a famous Japanese woman from olden times who used to do it. I would love to have written a way more descriptive sentence than that but I am too lazy to look up or remember the details. The book was My Year of Meats and I highly recommend it especially if you're interested in corruption in the meat industry and/or feminism. Anyway I really like lists as a way of organizing thoughts and I appreciate the cheesiness factor that comes with them.

2. It's okay to fry your hair:

      When my friends and family were dyeing their hair different shades of black and blonde and red and straightening their hair until it begged for mercy right before it died slowly from the ends up, I was okay with my "natural" look. I never believed in hair dryers and to be honest I still am not their biggest fan. I never straightened my hair because I thought it would kill it and I usually had long wavy hair anyway. I never dyed it because my mom is obsessed with this idea that once you dye your hair you are basically walking the plank and can never get back to your natural color or grow it out. I really believed her for a long time, that me changing my hair was going to ruin everything and I would never forgive myself. Seriously though, who the hell cares? It's hair. It grows back and if it doesn't, that's cool, most of my friends are bald anyway. I've been bleaching parts of my hair to keep pink highlights for at least a year now and of course those parts are not very healthy but it doesn't really bother me. My hair isn't falling out and I just want to try other things with my hair anyway so why worry?

3. Alcohol is good:

      I don't know. This one kind of speaks for itself. I only drank a little in high school. I could probably count the number of parties I went to on one hand. I liked it but I still had this idea in my head that it corrupted people and changed them and would eat me alive if I let it. Then I realized that I am a perfectly capable human being and that fun doesn't kill people. I learned to enjoy myself. But...

4. Being healthy is better:

      Alcohol is really bad for your body. I live based on the notion that "I'm in college once, I'm going to do what I want,"so I don't hold back too much but I do try to respect what my body wants and not push it too far. My Year of Meats was also really great to push me into my ongoing experiment with vegetarianism. Look at that full circle ending I just pulled off. Better quit while I'm ahead...