A Love Letter

Dear Marlboro College (in its entirety),

It's now my senior year, Marlboro. I've only been here for a year and a half, but the beginning of this semester marks the beginning of the end for us. It's a harsh truth that next December, I will graduate from this relationship and move onto the next one - a new life in Boston, or California, or the under-water world of Atlantis. Maybe graduate school, who knows. No, really, who?

We've had our ups and downs, my little college. You accepted me for who I am. I picked you as worthy to spend my money and time on. You have made my life harder than I could ever imagine. I have critiqued everything about you to the point of absurdity. You have made a year and a half seem like a lifetime. You have made me, at one time or another, uncertain about everything I knew before I knew you.

And so Marlboro, I think we should think carefully about what we both want for the next year. It's Plan, it's big. I don't want any surprises. I want an agreement on how we're going to treat each other. We need to settle this now. I'll go first.

Marlboro, I pledge to you my undying love for the next year. I promise you my heart, soul, and mind. I will treat you with kindness, compassion, and understanding. I will strive to make you a better place, and acknowledge that you are a place like no other. I will learn to love you more and more each day.

I don't ask a lot in return. I know who you are and what you're all about. I know your strengths and your flaws, and I know what I can change and what I can't. Marlboro, just let me love you and hold me close while we finish this. Help me heal from the things that have hurt me.

Thanks in advance,

Molly

Bad Plan Dream #1

Last night I had a dream.

In my dream, it was a Friday afternoon, supposedly sometime late Fall 2013 semester.

In my dream, my Plan was due to be mailed on Monday.

In my dream, I had not even begun to do my critical essay.

In my dream, I had decided to add a dance component to my literature and writing Plan.

In my dream, I had only completed half of my novella.

In my dream, no one understood why any of this was a problem and various professors encouraged me to just stay up for 72 hours and get to work.

I woke up FREAKING OUT.

It's two days before my Senior 1 semester, and this is what I'm dreaming about.

Thank you, brain.

A Thousand Words

is ten times more valuable than one picture to me. Words will help me graduate from college, and pictures will not. 

PLAN UPDATE!

For this past week I've been pushing myself to write a thousand words a day of my Plan novella. A thousand words is not that many, I know, but I reasoned it was a modest goal that I can achieve every day that will result in a many more words being written by the time I get back to school. 

When I sat down to start my new writing goal for the first time, it took me about two sentences to get into. And then the robot in charge of writing in my brain took over and I lost two hours of my life and gained six manuscript pages (meaning double-spaced) of my piece.

I realized that for me, writing isn't as hard as the sitting down and starting part. 

Now, of course, it should be said that the material I'm producing is very much draft material and that I'll probably re-write everything as this process continues. But you can't edit without something to edit, so I'm going to make myself sit down and start every day. Every day during winter break definitely, but hopefully every day back at school too. And then I'll need to add on 1,000 words of academic writing a day too. Yikes. Maybe only 500 of those.

The hope is that Plan won't be my own personal procrastinating nightmare if I just keep going and going and going...like the energizer bunny would working on his own little novels. I bet he'd turn out as many books as James Patterson does.

***In other news, I've decided, for now, that the plan is NOT to attend grad school straight out of college. Not sure about the rest but that much is certain. Which means in one year, I will be expelled out into the real world. I guess I should learn to drive.***

 

 

 

The World Didn't End, So...

I've heard the number of gym memberships go up a lot in January - everyone has a New Years Resolution to get fit. Everyone's hitting the treadmill - and then someone comes a long and helpfully directs them to the punching bag. What do they know? They're new to fitness.

I've also heard it's a trend for this surge of gym memberships to slowly lessen in activity as the year continues...like around February. Everyone wants to get fit, but keeping a fitness schedule is harder than one would imagine. It entails going back the gym periodically, which mostly just sucks.

It is burdened with this hear-say knowledge about gym memberships that I enter the new year - 2013, a year some (highly paranoid) people believed would never happen.

I think everyone feels the need to start over in the new year, and this January 1st perhaps those feelings are intensified. Perhaps we should all feel lucky to be alive even more so, and should look toward 2013 with fervor and vigor.

 The world didn't end, so it's time to finally get those sculpted calves!

***

On a more personal note, 2012 was a year of highs and lows for me.

Highs:

1. Getting engaged to Jonathan Wood, the kindest, biggest goofball I've ever met.
2. Realizing that I want to write. Period.
3. The love and support from all of my family and friends (thanks especially to mom and dad).

Lows:
1. My health.
2. My health.
3. My health.

I'm excited for 2013, and am hoping that instead of a year of highs and lows, I'll be working upward on a steady incline. MY New Years resolutions are as follows:

1. Get healthy - physically, mentally, spiritually
2. Write, write, write, write, write, write, read, write, write write...
3. Be a compassionate person
4. Be kind to myself

Here's to trusting in people and this world for another 365 days!

p.s. hitting the gym today.