I am happy to say I am done with my semester in school. Now I have a month and a half off before Summer School starts. My dad has already asked me what I am doing with my time off.
1. The most practical answer work more hours at my job aka earn more money.
2. Read more fun more fun books. I am currently reading Catching Fire but I have a few other books I want to get through.
3. Write more. Rather it be this blog or my story The Sister of Pine Haven. I have a few blog post in draft that I am working on and hope to get them published soon.
4. Some family is visiting. My dad and step-mom are coming in May and my mom is coming in June before summer school starts.
My dad and step mom:
From my college graduation
My mom and I:
At the Biltmore Estate
5. My birthday party- I love celebrating my birthday, I love planning my birthday. I am in the works of arranging a party where my friends will hopefully donate money for my trip to Honduras.
(Yep I still need to raise funds so please let me know if you are interested).
Though other semesters have been rough I feel like this semester I have spent more time in the library working on papers. I have grown accustom to spending almost the whole day in the library, learning the different schedules of when it was busy versus when it was quiet and finding it conquest when I left the library around 11PM.
While finals were tiring I have learned a few things to get me through this time.
1. My 5 PM coffee was great... though now I have to wean off it (this will be hard).
2. Learning to deal with distraction. While I work better at the library it is still hard to stay focused all the time. But it is good sometimes to be distracted. Here is a video from "Easy A."
3. Get out of the library. Back in February my friend invited me to two concerts and if I had taken a look at my schedule I would have seen that these concerts were in the middle of finals time and probably would have turned them down. But because I didn't do this I had preset times that I couldn't be in the library.
4. Find something that is calming. I love kids, I work in my church nursery and last Sunday I went in even when I wasn't on the schedule. This little boy was very tired and kept leaning on me and pushing on my belly with his head so finally I gave in and laid down with him. I didn't actually fall asleep but my friend took a picture of me as if I was sleeping. Eventually I had to wake the boy up but after that he was very clingy and it was wonderful for me to feel so wanted.
5. Keep telling yourself "it will get done," every semester I get stressed and I think I will never get this done I have to tell myself it will be done even if some nights I don't sleep that well.
For all my friends going through finals, this song is for you...
Last August I went to go see the movie The Help and I finally have read and finished the book. I know this will not come as a surprise but the book was much better than the movie. But I am sad to say if it wasn't for the movie I would not have read the book.
When I saw the movie I updated my Facebook status about seeing this movie and I learned that the movie had a back lash from the African American community because it glossed over the harsh realities of the Civil Rights movement. To read more of that post click here. The movie may have glossed over some of these facts but I thought the book did a good job of displaying some of these realities. But at the end of the book Kathryn Stockett writes a little a bit about her own life growing up in Jackson, Mississippi and the maid she had growing up. She also writes that she will never understand completely the plight of African American women who were maids back then but she writes that this book was to show women were not that separate but the same.
The book revolves around three women who will change their part of the world. The chapters switch off being written in either Aibileen, Minny or Skeeter's voice telling the story of how these women gain their own strength in the face of adversity also known as Hilly Hollbrook.
I like Kathryn Stockett cannot understand the true plight of what all these women went through back then. So I while I admired Aibileen and Minny I related to Skeeter. She is fresh out of college and wants to change the world. At first isn't sure what she wants to but then she finds her voice and the people she wants to help.
She graduates college with no engagement ring on her finger and she wants to get a job, this goes entirely against the norm of society. She is also characterized as a scrawny young woman with hair so curly/frizzy it is unmanageable. And her mother and her have a constant tension over the fact her mother wants her daughter just to be "normal". Tensions rise between Skeeter and her mom when their life long maid, Constantine, is gone when Skeeter comes home from college. Constantine is the one person who loves Skeeter just the way she is and Skeeter loves Constantine more than any one.
Skeeter knows she is not like every girl in Jackson but for awhile she tries to just blend in but when she speaks out she finds her strength. She faces rejection from the people she thought were her friends and she finds friends and family in an unlikely place. She also discovers her place in the world.
I don't want to give away any spoilers to the book for those who have not read the book or watched the movie. But it should be on your reading list. I could not end this book review with out mentioning the two strongest characters in the book Aibileen and Minny.
Aibileen has a quiet strength. She has spent her whole life doing what she is told to and silently she obeys. But she carries around the pain every day of having lost a son. Still she gets up every day to raise a little white girl a little girl who is not well loved by her mother. At first she doesn't believe she has a story to tell, then she doesn't want to risk telling her a story but she gains motivation to speak up and through telling her story she learns she has more of a voice than she ever thought.
Minny always had a sassy mouth. Which has gotten her into a lot of trouble over the years with both her employers and her husband, who is very abusive. However she has a deep dark secret that in the end protects the women of Jackson. She learns to let people behind her guarded shield and care for them.
It has been a year since the Royal wedding and I can say I am still obsessed with this couple. Maybe I am an ultra hopeful romantic and I still believe in happily ever afters. But last year I got swept up in all the romantic notions of this wedding.
Granted I did not wake up in the middle of the night to watch the wedding but as soon as I got up I watched any news channel that was playing it.
Kate arrives at Westminster Abbey
I love her dress.
At 2:40 you see Prince Harry look back at Kate.
I wonder what he says to Prince William
I know it is traditional for the British not to look back at the bride but I wonder how tempted Prince William was to see Kate. I can't wait to see my husband as I walk down the aisle so wonder if Kate wanted Prince William wanted to look at her.
