Things I Love: Part VI

(It's been over a year since I've written about something I love! What a shame, for I love so many things.)


Today I love: Nostalgia.
I am a professional reminiscer. I get real emotional about "the old days" even though I am 22, and love talking about the past with people who can remember it with me.

Yesterday, for instance, I talked to my old roommate about our sophomore year of college. That year, in particular, was full of ups and downs for both of us, and it was strange to talk about it three years later with someone who went through them alongside me. We both concluded that we've grown from them and since then, and laughed at ourselves and moved on.

This week, in order to avoid working on my big paper, I have been doing some pre-packing to prepare for my move. As I emptied my nightstand drawers, I came across a green shoebox that I always take with me when I move somewhere new.

Inside is every piece of correspondence I have received since 2007: Thank you's from freshmen on my hall when I was an RA, birthday cards from my grandmother, notes from my friends, requests from sisters-in-law to be a bridesmaid in their weddings, valentines from my brother, notes of congratulations, notes of encouragement, random letters full of inside jokes, and many others. If you ever sent me a note in CPO, wrote me a letter, or stuck a Post-It on my door in Kresge, it's most likely in here.

Call me a pack rat if you wish, but I keep them because they are a beautiful chronicle of the past five years of my life. The addresses on the envelopes range from Macklem Drive to Brookwood Lane to Burnt Hickory road, and the letters are like time capsules from the past, reminding me today of all I didn't know was coming, from friendships to internships to scholarships.

It's also an amazing testament to everything I've dealt with and grown from since then. What my mom wrote in her letters to me my freshman year of college is completely different than what she writes in her letters today, but I don't want to forget what I needed to hear back then. Remembering who I was helps me remember who I am.

So I'll save my box full of nostalgia, and keep adding to it.

Direction(less)

I am totally unsatisfied with the idea of just "blogging about my life." If you want to know more about me, you can friend me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, or see my pictures on Instagram. That's the reason I don't blog about my everyday activities: It gets redundant after a while. So if you want to know what my life is like (not that you should), just use those. Granted, I am very guilty of sharing only the fun parts—if you want the bad parts too, we can have coffee or Skype something. Or have coffee over Skype! I'm not above that.

And I love writing, but I write so much for school that it becomes more of a chore to think about blogging regularly. So though some of my friends have really great movie/book/TV show review blogs, parenting blogs, and other awesome things, I just can't muster up the energy to do it happily.

[Reading back over past posts, I noticed what I write about most on my blog is the fact that I don't blog. I'm sorry about that. I'll stop from now on.]

Yesterday, I went to Austin for the first time. My dad told me Third Day was playing a show and asked if I wanted to go. He has connections because of his and my mom's short-lived but stellar careers as recording artists. It's no big deal.

So I invited some new friends to go with me. We had real Indian food (which bizarrely made me think of Kentucky), and went backstage after the show. I never thought fully about how much work goes into every single show, especially for a band like that. Crazy light setups, tons of speakers, unloading, loading, practice, sound check, when do they take naps!? All the tour people we met (I'm sure there's a better term), seemed understandably overwhelmed about having to be back on the road by 2 a.m., but went out of their way to make us feel like we weren't in the way—a sign that you are really good at your job, I think.

Anyway. I am drowning in work for school. I'm almost halfway done with my Master's! Trying to figure out my summer plans. Finalizing living arrangements for next year. Everything is making me want to be in the future. But I just need to be here now, and write all these dang papers.

February in Retrospect

They say to be a real blogger you have to update your site three times a week. I am going to attempt to do that... this summer. When I have time to do fun things and then also time to write about them, hopefully I will be more successful at having a blog.

For now, a recap (if you follow me on Instagram this will be a bit redundant). This month has been lovely. I've been so involved with school that I've hardly had time to think about anything but homework and how incredible the weather has been. Last week, it was 80º and I was outside for almost eight hours. It was the best Wednesday I've had in a while.

Toward the beginning of the month, I was so blessed to get to travel to Nashville to do absolutely nothing of importance (my favorite kind of weekend) with Annie. We coffee shopped, actual shopped, and non-profit charity evented the weekend away. It was lovely. But then, I've never had a bad experience in Nashville.

As I said, school has been a bit overwhelming. I recently threw the hundreds of pages of reading from last semester into the recycling bin, and I probably forgot most of it as I did. This semester's reading will be at least that much, and I wonder as I turn every page of every article whether I will use any of it in the future. I'm sure I will, eventually, and it will help me get my first super awesome job. Telling myself that, at least, is what is getting me through it.

The other thing getting me through is my new circle of Waco friends! Here is one of them, Jenna, being adorable. Having someone to talk about classes and eat Chick-fil-A with on these beautiful days helps with the stress. Jenna is one of the nicest people I've ever met, which is convenient since I moved here with zero friends. She is awesome!

But, although I am making new memories here, I definitely haven't given up on my roots (with a little help from Google+). With everyone getting engaged and whatnot, it's important that we keep in touch. We try to do a Hangout every week and, surprisingly, it's working. Thacker D lives!

With all this school nonsense, plus The Bachelor, church, Lifegroup, small group, and spending way too much time at Target for a normal person, I'm quite swamped.

Thank goodness spring break is in two weeks!

Some questions for the coming month.

Dear February,

Are you going to bring cold weather to central Texas? It's in the 60s every day and I'm not complaining, but I'm a little thrown off after four Kentucky winters in a row, especially last year's.

Did we ever figure out what we're calling the decade that ended in 2010? The zeros? The two-thousands? The double-oh's? I know it doesn't have anything to do with you; I've just always wondered.

How many more television shows am I going to get into? Thanks to Netflix, I have gotten hooked on a lot of TV shows that everyone else already knew were awesome but that I didn't ever watch, for some reason.

In previous years I was a Gilmore Girl from a Modern Family who was Lost in The Office of 30 Rock, but now I'm among the Mad Men in the Parks and Recreation department of Downton Abbey and I just want to know How I Met Your Mother so I can have my Happy Ending.

I know it sounds like a ton of TV, but don't worry, I've had to improve my time management skills a whole lot because I'm also swamped with school. Speaking of which...

How many darn prospectuses are you going to make me write, February? Actually, you don't need to tell me. The answer is three. Three very large, work-intensive projects that are all a large portion of my grade. Thanks for that, 2/12.

Will you tell me what my summer plans are? I am applying to internships, mostly in Atlanta and New York, and I'm hoping that when you end I'll at least have narrowed it down considerably. I don't like having so many options. I feel like a high school senior again.

I'm still not sure where February 29th is coming from. How does that work? I heard it explained by Eugene on Adventures in Odyssey one time, but that was a considerable number of years ago, so I'm a little fuzzy on the logistics. We add on an extra day to you every four years and magically our calendar works? Sounds fishy, February. And kind of rude, if you ask me.

Christmas Break 2011

Pardon the length of this post! The past few weeks have been quite eventful. Each of these deserves its own post, and I really want to be that kind of blogger, but these highlights will have to do until I can move to D.C., have a cute baby, and be a Full-Time Internet Mormon.

December 9: Celebrated the victory of Robert Griffin III's Heisman with all the patrons of a very busy Waco steakhouse. It was smoky, it was loud, it was the perfect place to celebrate a hometown hero over some biscuits and sweet tea. I'm proud to be a part of Baylor, and I'm also pretty sure Robert's the most famous quarterback I've ever had two classes with.

December 12: Flew home to Atlanta. The next few days were filled with Resident Evil movies, which for some reason James and I had been telling ourselves we needed to watch since summer of 2010, doing a huge puzzle at home, and watching a lot of Arrested Development. 

December 16: Cam formed a Christmas Break Bucket List late one night from random snippets of the conversation we were having at the Marietta Diner over gyros and chicken parmesan subs (very diverse menu). It contained 44 items, and some were ironic and silly, and some were very fun ideas. Somehow we got it in our heads that we had to do all of them, whether or not they were 1) Fun, 2) Practical or 3) Possible. In a way, the Bucket List set the tone for the rest of the break. 

Those two photos make it look like two of the things on the list were, "Do aerobics in non-exercising clothes" and, "Pick up the biggest gourd you can possibly find." Alas they weren't on the list. If they had been, we would have beaten it! (We checked off all but two.)

December 21-22: Mom and I baked up a STORM for our big Christmas Extravaganza on the 23rd! I wish I had a picture of everything. Lots of people came all dressed up in their festive best, and it was marvelous. Apart from, of course, Jesus coming down to save us from our sins and humbling himself for us every day starting at his birth in a stable, I think parties capture the essence of Christmas. 

When Mom poured the caramel over the cake, I yelled, "Eat that Johnnie Gabriel!" And yes, we made Anna mop the floor for a party she was a guest at. It's how we roll. She's basically family anyway.

December 24: Celebrated Christmas Eve, aka Jesus' birthday, at Grandma's house, complete with Funfetti cake and singing Happy Birthday to Him.

December 30: Went to the High Museum of Art to see the Picasso to Warhol exhibit. It was truly one of the most educated things I've done in a long time (which is pretty sad, all things considered). Duchamp, Mondrian, Pollock, Picasso, Warhol, Matisse! So much culture! I absolutely loved it.

December 31: Celebrated a truly wonderful New Year's Eve with friends from Marietta and Asbury. We played Just Dance, shared our resolutions, climbed mountains, and laughed a lot. Worlds collided, friendships were made, inside jokes were formed, and everyone came away feeling refreshed.

The NYE '11 Crew

So much friendship.

January 3: Welcomed Harrison and Taylor home from Bangalore, India! It was a wonderful little reunion! 

Didn't get to hang out with them for long, because...

January 6: Flew back to Texas. And I shall write more on that later! Probably much later.

First Down

When I decided to come to Baylor in April, I kept myself from having any expectations of what Waco would be like, or whether I would like it or not. April and May were busy enough without me adding to the life changes going on, and the summer is never a good time to think about school. I preferred to make peach pies, float around in the pool, and go to King's Island and Braves games.

So for better or worse, I specifically remember that during my 16-hour-long solitary road trip to Waco, I thought about it fully for the first time. By the time I crossed over the Mississippi, I was about 50% of the way there, and 90% freaked out.

Almost four months later, I have moved myself into an apartment, lived with two girls I didn't know, gone to church alone, been part of the winning trivia team at the local pub, written and revised three research papers, befriended some hilarious people, gone to a few great football games, eaten at some awesome local restaurants, and gotten lost one bajillion times.

I've also made some mistakes, failed a lot, and felt really stupid about half the time I've lived here. But, considering I started from scratch, I don't think I should have expected any differently.

Anyway, as of Tuesday afternoon (or whenever I decide to do my take-home final), this semester will be over.

Was it fun? Most of the time (especially at first), no. Was it easy? Considering I didn't know anyone when I got here and am doing graduate-level work in a field I have never studied, absolutely not. Was it like college, just in Texas instead of Kentucky? It was probably the furthest experience I could have had from Asbury while still being on a Christian college campus. Listen, you're asking all the wrong questions, Imaginary Interviewer.

Did you learn anything important? There we go. YES. It would be impossible, and a little bit too personal, to share everything that I've learned, discovered, and finally begun to believe in less than four months. God has done some serious work on me and I'm different than I was six months ago. I'm still a weird, random, sarcastic, Dave Barry fan who loves milk too much. But I'm also a weird, random, sarcastic, Dave Barry fan who loves milk too much and really needs Jesus on a day-to-day basis, and sees more than just my immediate circumstances. That has been the key to learning to enjoy my life here: Perspective.

I also learned that my family are the best people I know, that my friends are much more dependable than I deserve, and that you cannot leave your stuff on the cafeteria table while you go get your food (consider yourselves lucky, Asburians).

So... Was it worth it? Well, it was no picnic or trip to DisneyWorld (I've been there!), and I know people who have dealt with transition much more gracefully than I did, and with far fewer freakouts over Skype. But—and this is something else I've learned—I think that's OK. So you know what, Imaginary Interviewer? Yes. Yes, it was.

First down, three to go.

Learning about the DPRK

Over the past few months, I've been reading a lot of articles from journals about communication, different theories of communication, and the history of communication theory-- it's about as interesting as it sounds. When I have time to read on my own, however, I have stuck to one subject-- North Korea. The political and humanitarian situation there is, from an objective, scholarly point of view, completely fascinating and one-of-a-kind, and from a Christian perspective, it's completely horrifying.

The handful of people who have noticed that I'm so obsessed with knowing about North Korea are surprised, because I'm not really the type of person to all-of-the-sudden take on random interests in this fashion, especially socialist Far Eastern countries. The primary reasons that I've been so interested and captivated by this nation are, first of all, a conversation I had with a widely respected woman who is on the board of a ministry that takes food and medical supplies into North Korea, and has been there several times. She explained to me briefly (as much as she could to someone who knew nothing) what is going on there. I was ashamed that I didn't know that all this was happening, and from that moment on I wanted to know everything.

The second reason is this fascinating documentary. I highly recommend it-- It's not too long, and I think it's a great introduction into the situation over there; the personality cult, the famine, the deception, and brainwashing that the North Koreans undergo, leading them to worship their president as a god. One of the most interesting things to me is that they truly believe that they are better off than all the other nations in the world. In fact, they are brought up being told that South Koreans are extremely poor and all have to scrounge for scraps on the streets. The defectors who escape to South Korea are shocked to realize that South Korea is one of the most booming economies in the world, and are often overwhelmed about how much they were lied to by their government.

Since September, I have read quite a few books on North Korea. For the most part, I've stuck to the most well-known works. Here are some great ones:

Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag. A memoir of a boy whose family was arrested and thrown into a concentration camp for having ties to North Korea's hated neighbor Japan, and his eventual defection to South Korea. He has since become a well-known speaker and advocate for human rights.

Somewhere Inside: One Sister's Captivity in North Korea and the Other's Fight to Bring Her Home. The story of a journalist taken prisoner by North Korean police while doing a story on the Chinese border. This book was even more fascinating when I realized that her sister was the same woman in the National Geographic documentary I linked to above. This book speaks to the power of the media and the importance of diplomatic relations between countries-- read it and you'll know what I mean.

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. This has been my favorite so far. Written by an American journalist who covered the Koreas for years, she compiled the stories of real defectors to give a holistic view of what life is like there, and gives a really good look at the famine of the mid-1990s.