Wow I had a major scare yesterday. The application deadline is in less than two weeks and I found out that Admissions had never seen or received my application yet. I don't know if it got "lost" or misplaced or if there's some scam going on there (hey you never know!!!), but after some serious harassing (aka: calling every department X 2), they found it!
In the meantime I had reprinted everything and was getting ready to apply all over.
Jeeze, my little thought blog is turning into a soap opera. I guess calling it the "Envelope of Fate" earlier wasn't so dramatic after all!
... Relax, Patti... relax.
Friday, January 19, 2007
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
You're in the middle of the ride...
I graduated college on December 17th. It feels like a lifetime of anticipation flashed before me- before I even had the chance to understand the reality of it. Everything I have learned so far throughout my life has molded me into the person that I am today. The experiences I have had, and the new ones I now encounter make me look at the world with new eyes, with my view changing every time I blink. It's a world of change, and that's a powerful but extremely exciting thing to me.
I've been thinking a lot about my future lately (as graduating college tends to make a person do!). I've realized that I've had so many experiences in my 22 years of life, most good, some bad. Either way, every experience has taught me a lesson about who I am and where I'm going in my life. There's a poem that was read during my graduation ceremony that puts things in perspective for me. Posted below is Ithaka by Constantine P. Cavafy
As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon-don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon-you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings
when, with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things, mother of pearl and
coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become,
so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then
what these Ithakas mean.
I believe that this poem explains the journey that life takes, the struggles involved, the knowledge we seek and the wisdom we eventually gain. The only negativity that we experience comes when we allow it to join along for the ride. There's no reason to rush through any parts of life, because if we do, we're missing lifetime opportunities that are right in front of us. We are reminded that it's not the destination that makes us who we are, it's the experiences we've had along the journey that define us.
Ah I love poetry... I am a nerd.
~
On another note- the graduate school applications are officially mailed out! As crazy as it sounds- shipping them off was an experience in itself! It's like all my years of work were reduced to an envelope. The Envelope of Fate. ... (okay that might sound a little dramatic, even for me.) So it's out of my control for now.
Until then I wait.
I've been thinking a lot about my future lately (as graduating college tends to make a person do!). I've realized that I've had so many experiences in my 22 years of life, most good, some bad. Either way, every experience has taught me a lesson about who I am and where I'm going in my life. There's a poem that was read during my graduation ceremony that puts things in perspective for me. Posted below is Ithaka by Constantine P. Cavafy
As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon-don't be afraid of them:
you'll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon-you won't encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings
when, with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things, mother of pearl and
coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you're destined for.
But don't hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you're old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you've gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn't have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become,
so full of experience,
you'll have understood by then
what these Ithakas mean.
I believe that this poem explains the journey that life takes, the struggles involved, the knowledge we seek and the wisdom we eventually gain. The only negativity that we experience comes when we allow it to join along for the ride. There's no reason to rush through any parts of life, because if we do, we're missing lifetime opportunities that are right in front of us. We are reminded that it's not the destination that makes us who we are, it's the experiences we've had along the journey that define us.
Ah I love poetry... I am a nerd.
~
On another note- the graduate school applications are officially mailed out! As crazy as it sounds- shipping them off was an experience in itself! It's like all my years of work were reduced to an envelope. The Envelope of Fate. ... (okay that might sound a little dramatic, even for me.) So it's out of my control for now.
Until then I wait.
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