Woot! First weekly blog post! I am very excited to begin a new form of blogging. Like I said in my Thoughts and the Past section, I’m used to blogging as if I am journaling. It’s going to take some getting used to showing more than telling. Anyway, with that being said, let’s get into it. Hmm, I’m sure the format will change, but how about we go day by day for now?
Monday, May 14th- Impromptu Breakfast and SnapChat
After a few weeks of not seeing my friend Sherri, we met up for breakfast. Or that was the plan. Instead of going out to eat though, we went to the store and bought eggs, sausage, and other breakfast-y items and made food at my apartment. I live with a couple: Richard and Mariah. This morning Richard was out presenting a final project for the semester, but Mariah was home to have our impromptu breakfast with us. We made eggs, sausage, potatoes, and a nice blenderful of berry smoothie. I think we were all aware this would be one of the last times we would be able to do something last minute like this. I didn’t ruin the moment by taking pictures.
The other “big” thing that happened this day was that I got a SnapChat account. Ha! My best friend had been begging me to make one for ages! I know I now have this blog, but that desire to stay in touch is strong. Especially with friends I’m so close to now. I can’t bare to let them drift away even faster than time already will provoke simply because I’m not well versed in social media. Soo, yeah. That’s been a ridiculously fun learning experience.
Monday, May 14th Part 2- Dress Shopping and Nutrition Counseling
… because I am losing my days and somehow thought the following events took place on Tuesday… which doesn’t make sense because it is Tuesday night as I write the following day’s events. Monday! This section is still Monday.
The girls and I went dress shopping today. Remember that my graduating wasn’t guaranteed? I was doing very poorly in one class which may have been a motivating factor in deciding to attend as many little graduation ceremonies as I can if I did end up graduating. Well, I roped Mariah into this. I convinced her to attend a Hispanic Convocation on campus so that we could be in the same ceremony. (She studies Natural Resource Management and I study Nutrition Dietetics, so our official graduation will be at different times.)
Anyway, with another ceremony, we went in search of a dress to wear. We went to the mall and a small secondhand shop. No dice. So, we got a bite to eat and called it a day. Sherri went home and I bugged Mariah and Richard for the rest of the day. I feel bad nowadays to spend too much time alone. I feel like every moment I’m not spending with the two of them is a moment lost. Like I said, hanging out won’t be as easy once we graduate. Life is going to change. A lot.
The last eventful thing that happened today was that I began nutrition counseling Mariah. Background on that: I took a nutrition counseling class this semester and I loved being in the position to teach someone about nutrition. I have a passion for education and I thoroughly enjoyed doing it on an individual basis. It was so satisfying to see my client for the semester take in the information I gave them and apply it. I was so proud of our work and look forward to being able to help someone out this way again.
Thence comes Mariah. She and Richard have been together about four years. They have a wedding date set within the next two years. Hmm, someone wanting to lose weight and someone about to graduate in nutrition. Like I said, I loved the counseling experience. One small problem though. I am not a licensed dietitian yet. Despite this, I offered my help to Mariah. I let her know, I am not an official dietitian and that other than that brief class experience, I am a complete novice in counseling someone. With the promise not to sue me for malpractice or anything else, she took me on. I am grateful for the practice and, of course, to help her achieve some of her health goals. We had our intake session this night which left me wanting to join in on the fun by focusing more on my own health journey.
Tuesday, May 15th- Graduation Photos and Last Hiking Trip
…Now it’s Tuesday. How is it only Tuesday? I thought it was Wednesday!
We took graduation photos. Well, as best as we could. Sherri, Mariah, and I headed to campus around midday to get this checked off the graduation to do list. Before snapping any pictures though, we stopped by our club’s office to visit the staff. I was a part of Mentor Tech (a mentoring organization on campus to help students transition into college life by providing them connections to people on campus such as professors or staff members [mentors] and undergraduate students [PAC Leaders]) my four years in university, but I must say that this year I finally let some walls down and got attached to the staff. I will truly miss them. I brought them thank you notes and an invitation to the Hispanic Convocation on Thursday. As a bonus, I also brought a flyer for my blog and a balloon dragonfly to promote my site. Ha, those management classes are coming in handy now!
After the visit, Mariah and I attempted to pose for our novice photographer (Sherri). I deliberately say attempted. Neither of us are decent enough to even be called armature models. We took photos at a couple of places on campus before getting hot and discouraged. To hydrate, we stopped by my old workplace for some water. We ran into my boss of three plus years and chatted a bit. After promising to return for one last visit with my family on Friday we left.
Later Mariah and Richard headed out to go on one last hiking trip. I went to give a friend a book that kept making me think about her then grabbed some food and went back to my lone apartment. Mariah and Richard are camping tonight and returning tomorrow which means I have the place to myself. I love being alone for a few hours at a time. I sing at the top of my lungs and watch all the T.V. I want! It’s been great! I’ll be glad when they get back though, but for now, no one can stop me from blogging at 1am while listening to Eye of the Tiger by Survivor!
Wednesday, May 16th- Road Trip Call and My Favorite Aunt
I was awoken by a phone call. Sherri has this habit of calling me when she goes on long road trips. I think it’s really sweet…when I’m awake. Well, I took her call and we chatted for little over two hours with a couple of disconnects as she drove through the towns with spottier cell service. We spoke about a party she had gone to with her classmates. First impressions? A ton of Chemical Engineers to be sitting in a room awkwardly not talking to each other. HA! Then we spoke a bit about boys as the topic tends to get derailed among girls. Who knows what else we talked about. I just know it ended with me giving my word I’d go check in on her cat.
My roommates still weren’t home so I sang some more songs with ridiculous high notes and belts. I called home and worked on this blog. Ordered some pizza, because cooking for one? Yeah, no. Soon after my roommates came back I got to talk to my favorite aunt. Her name is Melody. We each shared some life changing news. (I will announce mine soon. Her’s I will respectfully not share.) She’s the aunt who always has something positive to say, not matter what she is going through. I proudly seek to be like her in this way. She’s taught me to embrace change and keep living no matter the situation. And not only to live, but to enjoy life. I admire her so much.
Thursday May 17th- A Shower Serenade and Saying Goodbye
Mariah woke me up with news of a surprise party for a staff member from my club. It would be Rudy’s last day as he is moving across the country this weekend. Before even thinking about this, I goofed around for a bit then got ready. I picked some good belting songs and had a great last shower singing session. Tomorrow both Mariah’s and my family are coming for our graduations. This is the last day I have of my normal college life with her and Richard.
So, I serenaded them. A sort of goodbye and I hope you will miss my too confident cracking high notes. After my little concert, we left for the Mentor Tech office. There we had one last get together with fellow staff and PAC Leaders. We said goodbye to Rudy. Once everyone had left we took some stuff to storage one last time. So many lasts.
Finally, we attended the Hispanic Convocation. With Richard and Sherri in the audience we heard reminders to remember our roots and be proud of our culture and our accomplishments. After the event the four of us played a quick trivia board game then set to packing when Sherri left for her place. I’d been avoiding packing. If everything still looked normal, maybe I could convince myself that my college life isn’t about to end. But it is. No use denying it anymore.
Friday May 18th- Packing and Protege
Packing. That has been most of the day. Other than putting all of my belongings into boxes throughout the day, I went to say a final farewell to my boss. I was supposed to bring my family, but they hit traffic on the way and couldn’t make it on time.
Afterwards I had dinner with one of my freshman proteges from my club. It was so nice to be invited to meet up. We ate and had some delicious ice cream amongst delightful conversation. I can’t believe I only had them for a year. Some background: In Mentor Tech, participants (called proteges) are assigned a PAC Leader (or Protege Advisory Committee Leader who is an undergraduate student usually in the same or similar major). If available, they are also assigned a mentor who is a staff or faculty member at the university usually in the field the protege hopes to go into. This academic year I served as PAC Leader to five wonderful freshman. I hate goodbyes, but it was so nice to see Sue one last time. I am so proud of them all.
Saturday, May 19th- Graduation Day and People Invasion
I graduated with my Bachelor’s in Science today. Yay. I’m just glad it’s over. Maybe it’s the fact that my parents and Mariah’s parents both came into town yesterday. I don’t have a problem with any of them. My issue is forgotten social anxiety. Anyone else forget things are a problem for you until you are put in that situation? Like, I don’t know. Maybe you have a dog and he/she is a huge leash puller, but you’ve been letting them run around the yard for exercise and haven’t taken them on a walk in a while. I’ve done this. One day I get the brilliant idea to take my dog, Misty, on a walk because “you know, how bad can it be?”. Then…it’s bad. And I’m stupidly surprised by how bad, because it’s been too long for me to remember the last time. Yeahh. That’s my social anxiety.
So, my room has been invaded by my wonderful family. I love them, but they are in my room. They won’t leave. Part of the reason for that is that Mariah’s family has invaded the living room and common areas. My family, as a whole, is also socially awkward. So, my room is full of people, just like the rest of the apartment. Everywhere I turn: people! Aghhhh…
Anyway, on with my day. I woke up early to go to Mariah’s graduation at 9:30am. I was with her family and Richard until about an hour before my graduation where I switched people and was with my peers one last time sitting in an arena waiting to be called to graduate. Then I went out to dinner with my mom and brother. Then I escaped my family a bit by…. sitting in the living room with Mariah’s mom, sister, and nephew, in addition to Mariah and Richard. This was still stressful. Then I came back into my family-infested room and have been sitting in a corner singing to cope. *sighhhh* Why am I like this?
Sunday, May 20th- Goodbye College Town Hello Hometown!
It was a sad day of farewells. My family woke me around 5:30am. Looks like they were ready to go. We began taking stuff down to the vehicles alongside Mariah who also meant to leave this day. When it was her time to go, we stood awkwardly between her packed car and my semi-packed van. Then she hugged me tight and must have said some parting words. I couldn’t hear over a voice in my head screaming to break the hug. The tears were already forming. It was too much, too long. Too painful. So, I pushed her away. When she wouldn’t let go, I hugged her again then forced us apart and ran back up the stairs, my throat tight and tears streaming down. The last words I heard from her were “I’m so confused”.
My family continued packing. I did not want to participate. My life is ending. Well, my college life at this point has, indubitably, ended. It ended the moment our parents came into town. Then Mariah and I (and all the rest of my friend’s at university) weren’t each others. We were then at the mercy of our families. I love getting sidetracked on my musings, don’t I?
Back to the day’s events: my family continued packing. Sherri came to pick up her house key, so I was able to say goodbye to her. I think I was so emotionally drained by then that I could not mourn her. Then came the goodbye to Richard. My mom and I were taking the last of the stuff down to the cars when I told him this would be it. He just looked at me and said “What do I do now?” Ha! At this point I shooed my mom away and told him, “you mail anything I left behind to me.” He stood there a second then offered me a hug. I denied it.
Context: yesterday I’d requested a hug from him because I thought that’d be the last I’d see of him. I did not expect to get up so early. So, I denied him. Like he had offered to me the night before, I put my fist out for a fist bump. The perfect words danced in my head for this though I did not say them aloud. As our fists met, I wish I’d said, “None of that emotional crap. We’re bros, remember?”. He was always so chill with me and treated me like one of the guys. I miss him already.
The rest of the day was quite mundane. We drove about six hours back to my parents house where I’ll be staying while I work over the summer. I fought for my right to do my own laundry. (My dad insisted he’d wash it while I insisted I just lost my whole way of life and I wanted to be able to do something, anything for myself!) Then I began watching a new television series and went to sleep. I miss my old life.
Talking to myself…out loud blog version:
I want to post my whole week’s happenings at once, but I also want to write daily so I can remember the details. Seeing how I skipped a day in the middle of the week and managed to imagine an extra day, you can see how important daily blogging will be. Maybe I’ll post half of my week first then update on the same post when the rest of the week is over. Or I’ll post on a new “weekly” blog every Monday and update on the same post daily. It just seems like a waste to make a new blog post for every day! OR I could wait till Sunday to post it all at once. NAHH.
It’s a learning process.
Notes:
(1) Balloon design by Gustavo (Balloon twisting and photograph by me)
(2) As always, all names are pseudo names. (except Misty…That is actually my dog’s name.)
(3) I have gotten permission from the director of Mentor Tech to use the organization’s name. If you are thinking of going to university at Texas Tech, I highly recommend being a part of the organization and becoming a PAC Leader. The club helped me grow as a person and holds a special place in my heart.
(4) Next weekly post…expect it on Thursday or Friday…?
My Dragonfly Life 