Alleluia!

Springtime has finally arrived!!

I do not think it is possible for me to adequately describe how happy I am right now and how much I love this time of the year. So much is happening for me right now and it is resulting in the culmination of years of hard work finally paying off in ways that still seem to good to be true. God has always blessed me and I have always been a happy person, but right now I just have so much to be thankful for and so much to be happy about!! Ok...so you get it...I'm happy. :)
A few of the myriad of amazing things in my life right now include the fact that I received admission into the University of Washington's School of Nursing - the #1 School of Nursing in the nation. Out of 475 applicants this year, only 96 were admitted. You are reading the blog of one of those 96. :) My aunt gave me a nursing school regulation stethoscope at Easter along with a really beautiful card and those little things are what make this seem so real and exciting!! I just cannot believe after literally almost 6 years of hard work, careful planning, dedication, tough decisions and often times the neglect of more age-appropriate pasttimes, I finally am able to follow my dream. I realize the hard work has only just begun - nursing schools grueling and I don't forsee having much of a life outside of academia for the next two years, but I am so prepared to work hard at this. :)
The downside of receiving admittance on March 30th is that this quarter is basically BS for me. I'm only taking one class (and one summer quarter) and all I need is a 2.0 to retain my offer of admissions. Obviously I'll try for something higher than that, but I don't need to because my gpa is now irrelevant. Even for grad school - I've been told that graduating from UW SON is prestigious enough by itself that grades aren't really that important. I'll still try to get decent grades, but it's nice knowing that the school on my diploma will speak for itself. :)
On the heels of my nursing school admittance came my first layout in my ultimate-playing history. Technically speaking, a layout is when a player dives headfirst for the disc and it's pretty damn epic. However, the thought of diving headfirst for anything, especially when I know people who have broken bones, sustained concussions, or at the very least received BA turf burns, turned me off for years. However, I kept telling myself I would layout, and that conviction finally paid off at OnionFest 2012 in Walla Walla. I actually laid out twice and in full disclosure did not catch the disc either time, but now that I have overcome the mental block associated with laying out, I am confident that this summer will be a summer for the layout books. :)
In addition to laying out, I am really jelling with my UW team and can feel myself improving, even though the process is very gradual. It's the little things - like reaching out to catch something behind my back just out of instinct, or throwing a disc with exactly the right amount of spin exactly where I wanted it to go, or reading someone's hip positioning and poaching the hell out of their shoddy d. I even threw a hammer yesterday during scrimmage! (Again full disclosure: it was uncatchable. But I had the presence of mind and confidence to at least try it!)

I have always considered myself a confident person, and never really had an issue with self-image or insecurity or caring too much about other people judging me. When I started at UW, I got kind of a reality check because being 1 in 40,000 students leads to a very public sort of isolation. People kind of put on this hard, impersonal exterior and basically pretend like no one else exists. It's really weird, but I felt myself being sucked into that mindsent a little. I think part of it was my crippling insecurity and doubt about nursing school and what I would do with my life if I didn't get in. However, now that I'm in, and that it's Spring and that I am so happy, I just feel my self-confidence bubbling back and I am surprised at how contagious a good mood is! I know I won't be this happy forever, but I am loving life right now and damn well want to make the most of it.


Well, I think this post has gone on quite long enough. As always, I could write for pages more, but I will refrain out of respect for the time of anyone who chances to read this, although, let's be honest, probably no one does. :)

Alleluia! He is risen! He is risen indeed!!

I may have a vocabulary of 150,000 words but the only title I can come up with is the one you just read

In honor of this most holy and solemn season, I have decided to publish a list of my very favorite, inspiring quotes. These aren't simply phrases my friends accidentally uttered or witty sayings I poached from someone's facebook account, these are, in your author's humble opinion, the work of great minds who have summarized vast truths or concepts in one or two sentences. I love them so much because I think they are the product of wise minds with more knowledge than I may ever know. They are not necessarily religious, but all present food for thought.

Michelle's Lenten Quotes:

"To live without faith, without a patrimony to defend, without a steady struggle for the truth, that is not living, but existing."
- Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati


"You ask me whether I am in good spirits, how could I not be so? As long as faith gives me strength I will always be joyful."
- Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati


"Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing." - Mother Teresa


"The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either - but right through every human heart."
-Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn


"Great minds have purposes; little minds have wishes. Little minds are subdued by misfortunes; great minds rise above them."
-Washington Irving


"Nothing shows a man's character more than what he laughs at."
-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


"...that they may arrive at their desires...not of inevitable necessity but of culpable will."
-St. Augustine, On Patience


"What benefits the body is called medicine; what benefits the soul, discipline."
-St. Augustine, Of the Morals of the Catholic Church


"I am happy because I am alive and now I know it."
-One of the most incredible women I've ever met


"When we were lost and could not find the way to You, You loved us more than ever."
- Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation I

#themayanswereright

It's 2012, Bitches! The world ends this year!

With that apocalyptic foresight fully disclosed, I now present my annual goals and aspirations for this year. I have a feeling this will be a great and amazing year full of new and exciting opportunities, lots of fun, and lots of hard work. Even though the world will be ending, I think it's going to be a year for adventure, a year for trying new things, pushing boundaries, and reaffirming everything that I think is great about life. So, without further ado, my list of goals for 2012:

• Get into Nursing School!!!!
• Start Nursing School
  
• Move out (I say this every year...it might actually happen this time)
• Get a job
• Cross something (or many things) off of my bucket list
• Layout
  
• Callahan? Bookends? Layout D? Anything and everything is possible!
  
• Potlatch with a kickass team
• Do lots more hiking and cross off a lot of trails off my list
• Kayaking with my dad
• Put in a Grand Canyon permit bid
• 21 & Over comes out - hopefully they kept some/all of the scenes I'm in!
  
• CLUB RUST
  
• And finally, complete my New Year's Dare
  

I'm sure I'll think of other things I wish I could have put on there, but right now that is my 2012 Goals List and I have 355 days and counting to accomplish it all! Let's go!

You know you're a frisbee player when...

Places I have found turf:

• Shoes (all pairs, regardless of whether I wear them to practice or not)
  
• Backpack
• Car
• Bedroom floor
• Hair
  
• Lip balm
• Under fingernails
• Eye

I'm quite sure there are more, but I've lost track. I'm sure I've ingested it as well multiple times. Point being: turf and I are tight.

Book Reviews 2011 Continued

Well, now that I am, for all practical purposes, done with Autumn quarter, I think it is time to finish, or at least continue, my 2011 book reviews. Again, I am not expecting my readers to actually want reviews, but more try to catalog the books I've read for future perusal and reminiscence. I think at some point down the line I will also post a general re-cap of 2011 and goals for 2012 because I love looking back at the end of the year to see what I've actually done that I said I would do.


Michelle's Reading List 2011 (Part 2):


The Kite Runner
by: Khaled Hosseini

The friends whom I have discussed this book with all have very differing views so know that the book elicits a wide range of opinions. Mine, for the most part, were pretty favorable. The story is heart-wrenching, make no mistake about it. It also contains graphic material so I wouldn't recommend it for the faint of heart or as a bedtime reading (although that's what I did and I turned out just fine.) The story follows Amir, who at the beginning of the story is a little boy growing up in Kabul. He has a close friendship with his peer servant, Hassan, but one day witnesses a horrible event involving Hassan which scars him deeply. He deliberately drives Hassan and his father out of the house and lives with guilt and cowardice for decades. Eventually once he is settled in America with a new wife he decides to confront this unresolved issue of his past and journeys to Afghanistan for what turns out to be a difficult, violent, painful, yet redemptive quest. The story line definitely was written to elicit emotional responses from the reader, but what I most loved about the book was the imagery and descriptions of the Middle East. At the end of the book, I felt as though I had been there beside Amir, smelling the stale air and feeling the grit of dust in my sandals as I walked the long roads weak from hunger and grief. Anyway, not to wax poetic, but I enjoyed the book and it would certainly be a great book for a discussion.


The Lovely Bones
by: Alice Seybold

This was one of the first books I read after beginning my resolution so it isn't particularly fresh in my mind. That being said, I remember it being a nice, mild sort of book. I had read Seybold before, for my memoir class in Running Start. Her memoir Lucky, is the story of her rape and recovery in college and I found it a powerful and reflective book. This one, however, contains no trace of her past, and instead focuses on a fictional town reeling from the murder of a teen girl, Susie. The story is told from Susie's perspective, however, from Heaven. The plot wasn't particularly inspiring or original, but the perspective was refreshing. Seybold guides the reader through her work with a sort of gentle complacence. I always felt the story contained direction, but at the same time felt suspended in the clouds alongside Susie, watching events unfold from a sort of timeless reflection. Seybold also gets props for her depiction of Heaven. From my recollection, I doubt she is religious, but she paints a very interesting idea of Heaven being comprised of all the things on earth we consciously or subconsciously found happiness in and which gradually expands as our capacity for curiosity does. I'm not sure I would re-read this book, but I would definitely read more Seybold.


Emma by: Jane Austen

Again, another work I read toward the beginning of the year. This is the fourth Austen to grace the BBC's list of 100 Greatest Books. Unfortunately, I had already seen the play (fabulous) and the movie (witty) before reading the book, so it lacked the same suspense as her other works. I wouldn't have read the book at all, but in keeping with my resolution I decided to read it anyway so I could mark it off my list. The story is delightful and definitely more humorous than some of Austen's other work. Essentially Emma plays matchmaker with any and every of the other young men and women around her, but fails to take into account their own affections and desires when pairing them. This leads to unhappiness, confusion, and drama! When Emma starts to become intertwined in her webs of matchmaking she realizes it might not be the best idea and as she steps back all falls into place and everyone ends up happily ever after. The movie, in this case, was not the BBC version, but a 1996 film starring Gwenyth Paltrow who plays a fabulous Emma. Don't waste your time with BBC as this is where it's at. I think reading multiple Austen novels besides the great Pride & Prejudice really gives the reader a respect for her writing and allows us to appreciate how she always takes the same formula but book after book twists it into a fresh and intriguing storyline that has captivated audiences for centuries. That is the mark of great author.



Heart of Darkness by: Joseph Conrad

I actually ended up writing my final paper for South Asian Comparative Literature on this book and 1001 Arabian Nights so I studied it much more than I would have otherwise. Though only 38,000 words, Heart of Darkness is a dense and difficult text. The introductory author describes it as "unrelenting," a term which is quite appropriate. However, the book is quite powerful as well. The story centers around Marlow, who tells his fellow seamen the story of his expedition up the Congo River one night as they relax on board their trawler and wait for the tides to change. What makes Conrad's work so powerful and great, in this writer's opinion, is his vocabulary and word choice. It is vivid, provocative, and integral to his story. The entire text is built on a haunting, ominous undertone which increases as his tale goes on climaxing in both figurative and literal darkness. This is the sort of book which must be read 3 or 4 times to really begin to understand it and glean all the meaning and richness. His work is fantastic and it is definitely NOT light bedtime reading. Or bus reading. Or lunch break reading. So basically it's a school book. But such a great school book.