Saturday, March 22, 2008

Sunshine

Music for you to enjoy while you read: (right click and open in a new tab or window)
Click here:)
Then click here:)

I am not sure when it happened, but I walked outside one day and realized the snow had melted a considerable amount. The sun is shining again, and the grass is beginning to turn from brown to green. Granted, it is still only thirty degrees right now, but the sunshine makes life feel more optimistic and hopeful.

As I have continued this past month through school, I began realizing how much I really do enjoy writing. There is comfort to me in the sound of my thoughts being expressed in the depression of the keys on my laptop. I have been thinking more and more about what direction I want to take in school, and though I definitely did not think I would be like everyone else in changing my major my first semester of college, I am considering becoming an English Education major after all. I have had six papers graded of the seven I've written so far, and five of them have come back with 100% written on the top, with a note saying, "I cannot find any weaknesses in you as a writer!" My 94% paper was written in the midst of my pneumonia, and never edited past its first draft. My friends shook their heads in disbelief and said they hardly do that well when they've spent weeks on their papers, and yet it's somehow so natural for me.

I know that you should not major in something and take a course just because you are good at it, but then again, if you have began to love what you are so innately good at, why should you not run in that direction? I do still love the idea of being a family/marriage counselor; however, I must admit that the schooling it will take to get there does not interest me. I have been thinking lately about how I would enjoy teaching English, encouraging young minds to love to read and write and take joy in their personal expression of emotion and thought. I also enjoy reading and editing my peers' papers, and giving them my input and thought.

One thing I know for sure, I am a people person. I enjoy being alone and writing down an account of my day's journeys, but I would never want to work alone. I would never want to be alone in the back room of a warehouse, sorting merchandise or pricing items. I have realized recently how much I really need people. I have realized how much I love talking to people, relating myself to them, and hearing their thoughts and stories. I think this is why I would still love being a counselor, and yet as I have listened to and watched the examples of my teachers more carefully, I have realized I do not want to sit and listen to the problems of society and individuals, but that I would rather shape and mold those who have not yet been ruined by the cold world outside.

Perhaps it sounds as if I have an unrealistic idea of the goodness of teenagers, and the morality and optimism of their minds toward learning. However, I certainly know that there are troublemakers and unwilling children in the hearts of any age of man. I suppose that my point is that I would rather deal with the occasional problem in a high school English class, rather than sign myself up for an overall group of unhappy, fighting couples and immature solutions to adult life.

On a slightly different note, I registered for my summer semester classes last week and may have overloaded myself. I suppose I feel like I will try out the classes the first week and go from there, because I am able to drop up to six credits and still be what is considered full-time at this school (which is fourteen credits). Yes, it is true; I am registered for twenty credits as of now. This next semester I have signed up for the required religion class (three credits), a "real world" math class (three credits, but which, thankfully, is the only math class required for an English major:)) an intro to geography (three credits) and its lab (one credit), an interpersonal communications class (three credits), a social problems (sociology) class (three credits), a visual arts lab (one credit, consisting of being present at various plays and concerts throughout the semester), and a creative writing class (three credits). I am especially excited about the creative writing class. I only today signed up for that class, the occasion being providential in that I signed up over a week past the last registration date (those of us with few credits are pushed to the end) and there was one opening left in a class that fit my already-full schedule.

I am also excited for the last day of school, because I am going home to California for a week during the break between semesters! I have plans already to visit the beach and go on picnics, and generally enjoy the sun. I think that I will die if it happens to be raining all that week that I am home enjoying the Golden State:)

Although I am sure I could continue writing for another hour or two, updating the world on my entire life, I will end here and attempt to finish some of my psychology homework:)



p.s. I think everyone who reads my blog reads my sister's blog and is updated by her emails as well, but this picture of Caleb is so cute that I have to post it!

3 comments:

Jess(ica) said...

It's nice to see you posting again! I agree that you are a talented writer! If you think you'd enjoy teaching English, you should definitely go for that. And as a result of being a teacher, you would actually encouter many situations in which kids come to you for advise and with their problems, so you will get your chance to "counsel" as well!

Thanks for providing songs to listen to while I read your blog (and now, as I am posting a comment)! It is a sunny day here in CA, too, only, it is 72' Rocklin =) Be careful when you come back... if the weather is amazing and you enjoy your time on the beach, you might be tempted to stay! (Which I think your friends and family in CA would prefer anyway) =) Sunshine is more tempting than a 20-unit semester any day of the week! haha

not2brightGRAM said...

I think your major switch is a good one.

Call me sometime. I'd like to hear your new ring tone in action!

XOXO

grandma said...

loking forward to your visit....school will be keeping you busy..