Earlier this evening, I broke the coffeepot. And then I immediately went out and bought another one. Immediately as in it was the first thing I did after I swept up the broken glass. Grad students, we take our coffee pretty seriously.
Yesterday I spent the afternoon reading in a coffee shop north of campus, so I went to Mass at a nearby parish instead of the student center. The church is beautiful, and the priest gave a wonderful homily about the gospel and the power of Confession, except…he kept talking referring to the moment at which Jesus healed the leopard. Close, Father, very very close. But not exactly the same.
I made myself breakfast for dinner, and the (utterly delicious) aromas must have made their way down the hall to Debbie’s bedroom. Out she comes, all five feet of her, a little blonde fireball: Is somebody cooking BACON?!?
Me, I answer, but stay away. I will protect this bacon with my life!
I’m going to take it!, she announces mischievously. (She probably deserves a piece, given how much I’ve teased her today.)
I’ll poke you with my fork!, I threaten (I would never actually do this). It’s MINE!
Don’t go throwing your property rights in my face, says the roommate, to which the obvious response is I added my labor to it! I own it now!
That’s my life, you guys: I make John Locke jokes about bacon. (Or bacon jokes about John Locke. I’m not quite sure which way that cuts.) I drink too much coffee and go running by the river and I go to class and meet with professors and I read, a lot.
This is the part of me that’s here: in school, loving school. I was telling Arwen yesterday that I just realized I only have five more semesters of coursework left, and after that I won’t get to take classes anymore. I love taking classes! (Her perfectly appropriate response: “Yeah, you’re a total weirdo.” Believe me, babe: I know.)
There are other parts of me, parts that struggle very hard with being so far from my family, that wonder what I’m doing and whether I’ll be happy, in the end. But there’s a part of me—my whole head, and even a bit of my heart—that’s happy now. And for now, I think that has to be enough.
I'm so glad that school is making you happy, even with your family far away. I wish I loved to learn the way you love to learn!
ReplyDeleteI feel compelled to comment just to say that I got the John Locke reference. :) My brain has not totally atrophied in the last 8 months!
ReplyDeleteBy the time I got my B.A. I was SO ready to be done. The self-imposed pressure to perform perfectly was too much by then. But I do miss not having to work quite so hard to stay in touch with my friends who get the John Locke jokes.