Creole Wisdom

my high school

{holding my senior photo, taken when I was a junior... feels like yesterday!}

Since Gwyn's passing I've been thinking so much about my high school life. Ten years ago I was a sophomore at St. Mary's Academy. I don't think I've blogged much about my time there, so here are a few things I'd like to share about my high school experience:

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St. Mary's is an all-girls, four year high school in downtown Portland, Oregon. 

When I started as a freshman, construction was underway on the theatre and when I left as a senior they were adding a top floor!

I loved my Catholic education :)

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Maybe it was the era, Bush administration and Kerry losing the election in an extremely liberal city, but I remember high school being very political. People walked out to protest in several anti-war rallies; I went and got hot chocolate at Starbucks.

I loved that God was part of my education. We had a priest that was young and would rap, so funny.

I was active in French and fashion club. For a while I helped out with Student Council, but being more active meant going into school early on Thursday late starts. I was not about losing my sleep!

Speaking of sleep, I'd leave the house by 710am because the first bell rang at 745am... good morning! Homework sometimes kept me up until 11pm, and since I was getting up at 6am and still growing, I was exhausted. I kept a poster from Columbia University [Barnard College was my dream school] up near my desk to motivate me.

It astonishes me now, but I was a runner in high school. I used to get so nervous on race days. Luckily I had my friend Elizabeth to encourage me.

Each fall SMA put on a father-daughter dance. My senior year I gave a speech about my awesome dad.

For a senior year elective I signed up for Photoshop class on a whim. If I only knew then what I knew now... I had no interest in photography in high school.

Almost everyday after school I'd head to the gym. I was kind of big on fitness then: to RiverPlace Athletic Club or The MAC Club.

One of the highlights was being on St. Mary's Rose Festival court. Loved being a part of that!

{if you've been reading this blog long enough you should recognize that boy}

Best of all, I made some excellent, life-long friends. One of the good things that has come out of Gwyn's death is the chance to reconnect with people I've lost contact with. These past few weeks have been a flurry of e-mails, reuniting on facebook and such.

Can't wait for the reunion!

where I used to sleep

I found myself going through old photos last week and found these two gems, the bedrooms I lived in during my junior and senior year of college at AOPi.

{junior year 2007/First Semester}

style: second floor triple

roommates: Ashley and Brittany

best room memory: smuggling an extra dresser from the sewing room into our closet :)

something I distinctly remember: that the home next door always left a small lamp on and I could always see it from the window behind my bed.

{senior year 2008-2009}

style: second floor double/room 7

roommates: Becky [first semester] and then Kate [second semester]

best room memory: countless study and movie sessions on that "rainbow rug."

something I distinctly remember: recovering the shelf that was ontop of the radiator with pretty papersource wrapping paper :)

 

happy place

I am a proud graduate of the University of Minnesota. I loved my three years there. A few weeks back my boss needed me to take some photos of a museum on campus and of course it did my heart good to walk around a bit.

Driven to Discover... what an excellent tag line. Oh, and fellow alumni, if you ever want to walk around campus and just have a moment for yourself, go during spring break. It was nearly empty!

I took many, many classes in Ford Hall. That is what happens when you are a communications major :) I also spent a good chunk of time in between classes at Coffman, usually meandering in the bookstore or ordering signature hot chocolates from Starbuck's (yes, I am bitter that they are discontinued.)

There are many things I miss about the U and many things I don't miss, but sometimes it's the places that I spent time in and loved that no longer exist that I really miss.

Specific places I miss:

Clearly room 7 in AOPi

Coffman's bookstore

NE Lund's

My U Common's apartment on sunny mornings

The coffee shop in the Dinkydome

Cumming's book store

Emma's chateau apt with the purple wall

...

 

infused with: memories

Did you know that scent is the brain's strongest tie to memory? Did you also know that Bath and Body Work's cotton blossom is identical to sea island cotton?

In August 2007 I was straddling my sophomore and junior year of college. It was a typically warm Minneapolis summer and my mom and I were at the mall. I picked up a few bottles of sea island cotton shower gel and body lotion.

In August 2007 I also found myself preparing to move into Alpha Omicron Pi. I felt excited, thrilled and perhaps a little nervous. I was mostly excited though.

Every morning during Wilma Week (what we called the series of days before recruitment where we prepped for show time), I'd head off to the giant second floor bathroom with a shower caddy filled with sea island cotton shower gel and lotion.

So now, when I unscrew the cap on an ordinary March morning I think of August 2007. Then I sort of get a lump in my throat because I really really really loved living in AOPi and now it's 2011 and we are still all the best of friends. Then I stop being too sentimental because I realize this is one of those things that makes life so grand and destiny is good.

All in all, money well spent. Thank you Bath and Body Works. Thank you Alpha Omicron Pi.

Which scent does it for you?

graduation (the long one)

My lovely AOII sisters and I (the seniors) graduation on May 27th at the University of Minnesota CLA commencement May 17th. 

College was hard.  It was emotionally hard: from my parents dropping me off at my dorm in Hill House to the growing pains of learning to live with others (sharing a bathroom!) to professors who didn't like me (for whatever reason: being Greek, being too talkative, being me, not liking them- whatever).  Emotionally hard, because moving so many times is physically exhausting and takes its toll (moving is hard!) And then an emotionally hard that sneaks up on you: attending your last initiation as a collegiate member, or senior send off.  Some of the hardest is the heartbreak from whoever.  The emotional strain that comes with math and science classes, or that really scary final-

College was physically hard. Getting up, and getting out in -20 degree weather is tough.  Stomping through snow from east bank to west. Carrying boxes up big flights of stairs at Hill House, in South Minneapolis, at University Commons, and finally, AOII.  Trying to make times for exercise when you are exhausted.  Getting up hung over and still going to work or school, because it's what you do-  but it was worth it! Scraping your feet while in heels out or having your tootsies stepped on at formals. 

College was spiritually hard.  What a beautiful world our homes are as children where our parents work to prepare us to follow in their footsteps.  College is another ballpark with God.  Sometimes you can't hear him, sometimes his voice is strong.  I leaned on friends and family for guidance.  I lost my way, I came back.  It's the reality.  Never getting all the answers, but wanting them, and realizing that is how life is spiritually is a wake up call. 

College was academically hard.  Can I get an amen?  It's not the homework or the papers, it's simply being there.  Making an impression.  That damn group work that drives us all nuts.  The boys who want you to take notes for them, write their papers, or send you copies of your final (yes it happened).  The people who don't show, the late night study nights, and the uncertainty of where you stand. 

So yes, college was hard.  But for the most part, college was good.

College was rich with friendships.  Words cannot express the love I feel for my friends met here.  This was certainly meant to be my path.  AOII was my home (a piece of my heart is still there).  We are talking good friends here.  Friends who pick you up from class, walk with you to class, get McDonald's ice cream with you, listen to you cry, watch kids movies with you, lend you their OPI top coat, sit with you when you wake up in the morning to rehash the last night.  Friends who love you so much they live with you after college, and work where you work (coughkatecough).  Friends who cannot get enough.  Enough laughing, insides jokes, boy stories, and good beauty advice.  Friends you can take places!

College was rich with dating.  Despite my one "dry" year, there really were boys abound.  Boys who taught me that men are for the most part, good people who just don't know how to act at times.  Boys were were funny.  Boys who were scared.  Boys wounded from their high school love, boys who won me over with their humor and strange sense of fashion.  Some of my best friends in school were boys.  My little and big bro (whom I never dated) ARE like brothers to me.  But back to the dating. It was good. it was bad. it was fun. it was stupid, and I learned from it all.

College was rich with life lessons.  Like getting up, showing up, and being early.  Like smiling, and having good manners, even to rude people.  Like forgiving your friends and sometimes professors.  Like you really can eat carbs for all three meals, and it will not really show (yet!) Like AOII yoga pants are totally fine to wear 7 days a week.  That taking care of kids is the best job, who else has that much energy to keep up with a two year old? That I am really lucky and have it made (at least to me!)

So on May 17th at 3pm I walked to Coffman one last time as a student.  I met up with my sisters and we walked towards Northrup.  There were sat in a row together and watched other students graduate.  Eventually it was our row's turn.  We went up together, and cheered as the announcer named all of us.  I love that we were together, even at "the end."

And as I close this book on the last childhood chapter of my life, I can safetly say that I experienced all there was, and loved as hard as I could.  Cheers, and pass me a glass of champagn.

the good with the bad

I moved out of AOII tonight, you know- it was quite bittersweet.  I really do feel like an era of my life has ended- an era that I did not always appreciate, because I am impatient and want my life to go faster, but I am also nostalgic.  And that is a lethal combination.  I think it hit me when I had moved every item of mine out- and it looked so empty.

The room I shared first with Becky, my "little sis," and then Kate- who is family that I didn't know I had until two years ago. 

How strange it will be to go to sleep tonight in a room without someone else.  Someone to talk to, and say at the end of a deep conversation "good night. love you" and hear "love you too" back. 

Emily Kate's post got me thinking, and so here is my comprised list for all the blogosphere to read.  Since this era is truly ending:

What [I loved] about college:
•Making/creating my own schedule. Getting up late, oh I love my sleep!
•Living "on my own" with friends
•Alpha Omicron Pi (everything about it)
•Taking boys into "the green room"
•Walking into the mall on a crisp fall morning
•Wearing AOII yoga pants 7 days a week
•Painting my nails in the basement while watching movies with Karen and Alicia
•Staying up really late
•"Getting coffee"
•All the boys (after 4 years of all girls high school!)
•Black Tuesday
•Student discounts
•Formals (all six of them)
•Eating meals with tons of people
•Gigantic holiday breaks, 4 month long summer breaks

What [I disliked] about college:
•Tuition 50,000 for the first year (SLC) 10,000 for the next three (plus dues!)
•Moving (12 times. *$&#@)
•Not having a car/walking in -30 degree weather or at night. in an urban environment
•Finals. research papers.
•How "long" it felt
•The Dinkytown Singles Ward (shudder)
•Trifling boys
•Living with (just 1) crazy people (sophomore year)
•Drunk, loud people outside my window, waking me up at night
•Riding the bus
•Ugly furniture. bad matresses.
•Living in not-so-fabulous neighborhoods
•4 extention cords. 2 ethernet cords. cords.
•Making big, often frightening decisions
•Feeling worn out from school, tests

With all things, you must take the good with the bad.  I choose to remember the good.  You can't hold on to something ugly and bad forever. 

That being said, let me get on my soapbox here: I am so glad I went to college.  This was always expected of me, and I am glad I was able to finish school in four years and graduate from a good University.  I believe good mothers must also be intelligent.  I went to college, so I can be smart and a good mom someday.  Also, C's do get degrees!  College is also not the best place to go husband hunting- trust me, I tried, and it I finally found someone good by the last year.  In the last semester.  But college is a GREAT place for finding future bridesmaids and godmothers.  You'll at least get a couple freshman year.  College is exposure to lots of different people: happy, sad, sick, healthy, crazy...  I only ran into a few bad apples (Lindsey) but cannot even begin to count the gold of friends I found in school: Claire, Anne, Dan, Emma, Kate, Karen, Katie, Alicia, Zane, Becky, Joy, Malyia...

All in all: fabulous experience.  Time to close the book on this one.

the zero hour

From now until Sunday at 3pm I am: done with college, but not yet a college graduate.  It's the zero hour, and I plan to make the most of it.  A little update is in need:

This past weekend, something exciting came in the mail.  It was quite thrilling, actually...

so many memories of high school came floating back when I took this out of the package.  Except this time, it's a pretty white with a gold 2009.  I think you should get a little upgrade when you've got four years of undergraduate under your belt er. skirt. 

I also got to upgrade my bedroom at home a little bit, since I'll be living there this summer.  I'm excited to save money, spend time with family, and collect great garage sale finds/vintage stuff for my new apartment which I move into September 1st.  And the upgrade is: pretty curtains.  I know the lighting is bad, but I had to show you- I am so happy

Saturday, I went over to SAE (Sigma Alpha Epsilon) for a little photoshoot.  Their historian wanted to get a few photos taken, and here are some of my favorites.  You can see all of them, here.  It was such a treat, and so fun.

For mother's day, per mom's request we got breakfast at the Everyday Cafe.  At 7am.  Yes, it was hard.  Then we went to 9am mass, again, a struggle for me, but I pushed through the sleepiness!  Mom loved her new reed diffuser from Ampersand. 

Then I had the "hard" task of picking out swatches of fabric for the table cloths at my graduation party.  It's going to be really fabulous.  Cannot wait : )

nearing the end of the beginning

(just bear with me this next week as commencement is upon me, and I just need to take it all in).  Excuse me, how come no one ever tells you how emotional graduation is?  College graduation.  High School graduation was sad... um, kind of, except when you consider how thrilling one last summer and college orientation is.  There is a lot to look forward to.  Instead, with college graduation you get a giant blank slate.  If you wanted, you could move to Australia, or just decide to live in an abandoned house.  You can do what you want. The choices are overwhelming and freeing all at once.

Today, on the bus coming back from my morning class in which my dear professor shed a few tears about how we were going to make this country great, and change things (I want to) I thought to myself... I can take a dance class.  I could run everyday.  I could...

The choices are liberating and frightening and exciting.

I just walked back from my last class as an undergraduate at the U of MN.  Forever.  I am done (minus finals).  It felt so bittersweet. 

I wish I had lived in the moment more.  This "week in the life" has been a perfect project for me. right now. it has forced me to live right now.  Where was I the rest of the time?  I am glad I wasn't always in "katie land" as j calls it when I zone out.  I wish I had been present more.  Gone to more exchanges, feeds, joined another club, skipped class to do something fun [but I did], and... the list goes on and on.  But it's not fair to have regrets really because you cannot go back.

I am excited for the future, and my life from now on.  I never imagined my existence as a college grad.  Growing up, it was expected of me, but I had a few images of myself in my mind: going to high school, getting into college, going to college, and far off: getting married and being a mom.  I am going to fill-in-the-blank. 

back to school- final take

•This could very well be my last back to school.  I'm not positive, but it was a bittersweet walk to campus this morning.  Chances are I'll go on to grad school, but certainly a chapter in my life is closing. 
•And to mimic Princess Lasertron, I am in grade sixteen this year.  Wow.  Sixteen years.  I still remember my first day of kindergarten.

•And while uniforms were the norm for kindergarten, I've got a dress code of my own to match my cute sorority sisters.  It's back to school... with VERA BRADLEY!

•And the run down on classes: I've only had two so far, so it's hard to tell.  However, so far, so good.  I think my Electronic Media course is going to be the best- too bad he never lets us miss studio labs, um, when am I supposed to skip out and go on vacation? LOL! This is not high school, after all.  Attendance was so 1992-2005 ; )

the good news/the bad news

It has commenced.  Final season. 

The last day of classes is Tomorrow. I am worn, and tired of waking up early to trudge through piles of (albeit lovely) snow.  I want to sleep, sleep, sleep all day long and never get out of my flannel sheets.

But until the 18th none of that will be a reality. 

Just two finals this semester (the other two projects are done).  That is the good news.  The not-so-good-news is that the finals are Math and French.  Kill me now. 

Was supposed to start on making flashcards last night until Jana came over and along with Claire the three of us commenced on what turned into a three hour conversation.  Where does the time go when you are with friends?  I looked at the clock and it said: 1:30 then thought, we couldn't of talked for that long.  Yeah, and I got nothing done to prove it.

But, at least I got to eat Brie at our holiday dinner.

Me studying at my desk last week, when I wasn't so sleepy.