grad school make me mad skool

So, I don't have much to do here for the next 10 days because the kids are on holiday. This hasn't been a problem for me because I've been taking it easy, maybe too easy. I take a lot of time getting ready for the day and getting ready for bed. I take nice walks around the neighborhood taking pictures of people and trying out new foods, cautiously of course. I'm also at the internet cafe for a good chunk of time but doing productive things like . . . blogging . . . and researching grad schools and filling in applications and writing essays. Well, I knew all this alone time would catch up to me and I'm actually starting to feel the tiniest bit lonely. I'm also starting to wonder how I possibly graduated from BYU so much earlier than a lot of my friends. I guess I've just been pondering what I did at BYU and what I'm supposed to do for grad school.
For some reason, I feel guilty about not doing some things in my undergrad:

• I never took a political science class because I don't like politics and I don't particularly like defending my opinion
• I wish I had taken more Italian classes since, after all, I'm technically a "linguist."
• I should have tried out more elective courses like a film class. Astronomy? Wilderness survival?
• Why didn't I do more internships?

Ok, so I'm feeling down. The rainy day doesn't help, either.

Last night, I had this discussion with myself asking if I had taken the easy way out. I switched from Communication Disorders to Linguistics my sophomore year. Basically, I didn't like my classes nor my classmates very much in CommD, so I attended a linguistics course and decided it was more dynamic and a better learning environment for me. It really was, but I wanted to be a speech pathologist every since high school. Did I quit speech path just because it was getting hard and a little bit unbearable? I really did enjoy every linguistics class though, and I made good friends and had good study partners. Also, my teachers were crazy. In one class, our final was to present a poster on the term paper we had written, but I really didn't feel like making a poster so I made a cake instead and still got an A because my teachers valued "interpretation of language." The point is, despite the fun I've had in linguistics, I can't do anything with a bachelor's in it, not even a master's.

Luckily, I did an editing minor, which I can do a lot with. My current plan is to go to grad school for journalism in the magazine editing and designing field. I suppose grad school is to make up for our guilt (there's probably a better word for it than guilt) of undergrad. A lot of courses in the grad program are designed around ethics and politics, so political science--check. I'll just use my mum's Rosetta Stone for Italian, Italian--check. And I'll interview astronomers and wilderness survival kids for beats and stories, electives--check. And I'll have to do an internship before I can get accepted, most likely, internship--check.

I still might change my mind, though.

neighborhood

some of my friends in the neighborhood.

Ceramics 2.0

This is the second helping of ceramics from my summer pottery class. I just got these from the studio this past week. I made a bowl, a cylinder, and a plate. The bowl is my pride and joy. This was my second attempt at a bowl and it was really hard. My teachers had to help me a lot with this one. I always got discouraged at how much help I needed but I know I could do it again on my own. The coolest thing about ceramics is that if the throwing (on the wheel) didn't go quite as planned (as it did for this bowl), you can always make up for it with the glazing. I love how the glazes turned out on the bowl! I used three glazes: berry purple, turquoise, and golden horizon. I painted them next to each other, sometimes on top of each other. In the kiln, the glazes melted and dripped into each other to create all sorts of colors and even a glittery aesthetic in some places. It is magical. I am so proud of this piece. I also love the cylinder, which serves as the perfect cup for a late night cup of chocolate almond milk. My favorite late night treat. I glazed the whole cup in crackle parchment and made the lines with a glazed called cilantro (or oregano, I can't remember which spice). And the plate is a gift for Dallin. The two bikes represent our bikes. I ride a boy bike and he rides a girl bike, and I hardly ever let him ride my boy bike. It's kind of cute. This one is for you, D. Hope you like it.