One Word: Hope

I suppose it’s only fitting that this post finally comes together on my B-day and, per usual late to the party but I was finishing up a few things for school and then my new computer broke (DON’T ASK) and when you live in a three-person household that has only two computers it it difficult to obtain one to work on exclusively.  So I had to wait until my parents got a desktop so I could appropriate a laptop.

So at the beginning of the year one of my blog friends did something that she’s done for a while but I was unaware of it the past few years.  I have not made it a secret that I despise New Year’s resolutions…despise them and I have made it a point to not make any for the past several years.  I seriously don’t see the point.  And I know I’ve said it before but if you want to start something new you can choose any ol’ day and just start.  But Alece has done something…different.  She chooses one word and lives the rest of the year with that one word in mind, last year her word was risk and she attested to how it affected her life throughout the year.  So when the new year started to come into view I thought maybe I should try it out, this whole One Word thingy…

I started thinking of what One Word I could choose but it wasn’t until I was at a New Year’s Eve party with my parents and some of their friends and they have this tradition of writing down their New Year’s resolutions, putting them in a hat and then trying to guess who it belongs to.  Well due to my distaste for resolutions I thought quickly and then Alece’s One Word thing occurred to me and I though what would I choose?

The only word that occurred to me was – Hope.  Given my newly graduated status and the fact that I’m currently living with my parents and am jobless that seemed most appropriate.

Hope for a job that I like and can stand to stay at for the next who-knows how many years.

Hope for a nice place to live.

Hope that I can stay in Colorado for the rest of my life.

Hope for a God-filled life and love.

This works for the next year because I am officially a young professional now, no longer a student and it changes things, looking for a job is different because I know that it is entirely possible that I will be there for a good long while and the same goes for a place to live.  And I tend to be a pessimistic person and see the negative side of things so I thought I’d try something new and focus on having Hope.

We’ll see how it goes…

I GRADUATED!!!!

I’M AN ALUMNUS!!!!

I’M A GRADUATE!!!!

I HAVE A B.S. IN ENGLISH!!!!  (that’s a Bachelor of Science in case you were confused ;P)

Ok so this is a little late because I graduated on Saturday (the 18th of December), but I was busy Saturday with graduating and all and then I drove back to Colorado with the parentals so it was late when I got home and I went straight to bed.  Then on Sunday I slept and then went Christmas shopping with mi madre and just the thought of getting on the computer even for fun put my stomach in knots, I needed a bit of a break.  Then I slept most of the day Monday so here it is Tuesday and I’m just now getting around to announcing it…oh well that’s the way it goes sometimes.

The graduation ceremony was fun, it was the fall ceremony so it’s smaller and goes faster than the spring ceremony.  I sat in the front row pretty much smack dab in the middle; right in front of the podium where the president of the university, the registrar, the student body president and the president of the alumni association spoke from.  I only cried twice; once during a song that the choir sang and then when the alumni president spoke and called us alumni.  They gave us all namecards so we could pronounce our name to the dean and then they would read it out; the namecards also had the honors on it like Summa Cum Laude or whatnot.  I was just happy because this way my name wasn’t butchered.  They did mis-pronounce my middle name but I didn’t care so much because they got my first and last name right so yaaaaaa!!!!

I still have a few little things to finish but overall I’m done…and it feels weird.  It’s going to take a little while for it to sink in.  I keep finding myself doing things that I did in the past when I came to visit my parents.  Like gazing at the mountains and trying to soak it in as much as I can to sustain me only to remember that I don’t have to do that now.  Just little things like that.

And now Christmas is like right here and I haven’t done any shopping so I’m having to do that this week and after that it’s job hunting time…hooray…I have a few prospects lined up so we’ll just have to see if anything pans out.  I figure I’ll be lucky if I get a job before next Christmas.  Kidding, sort of!!

So that’s where things stand.  I should have week-in-a-flash back next week, though I doubt I’ll have a whole lot for it and as soon as I finish up with the few things for school that I have left and get into the mindset of “hey I can do this for fun!” this being reading and writing, then I’ll have other things besides week-in-a-flash and I’ll be able to catch up on all the blogs I read.  And do you know what else I can do now that I’m a graduate and an alumnus?  I can start reading for fun without having to analyze the book so I can write a paper on it later and I can watch TV like a real person now and I can write my stories again and I don’t have to pull all-nighters and I can eat real food…so exciting!!