A Study In Milk

While I was having lunch with my friend Lis the other day, she did something that shocked me. Lis had come back to the table with a glass of milk. However, this was no ordinary glass of milk. It had ice cubes in it. Yes. Ice cubes. Lis had put ice cubes into a glass and then put milk in the glass on top of the ice. She claims that it is "an ice cold glass of milk." You heard right, a literal interpretation of the phrase ice cold. Now, I don't know about you, but I cannot drink milk with ice in it. The ice will water down the milk. It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Since that day, Lis has been bugging me to write a blog post on it. Here I am, doing just that. Now, I didn't want to write such a short post about Lis's strange milk drinking habit, so I decided to take a look at other various forms in which milk can be seen. 

Here in America, when you buy milk in the grocery store it comes in a plastic jug. Most commonly they are gallon or half gallon jugs. 

These plastic jugs are made of a flimsy, yet still hard plastic. I'll admit that I don't know much about it, but I do know that when dropped, they aren't likely to break. Anyways, to me, this plastic seems like a lot of plastic for one small jug. Plastic is one of the biggest problems with recycling and trash in the world today. It is everywhere. Many times people throw plastic away, and I feel like it is such a waste. Despite this, people still buy milk in plastic jugs. This is because it is about the only thing that is actually available. 

Plastic jugs are not the only form that milk takes. Now I am going to talk about bagged milk.This gets a lot of laughs from a lot of people. In parts of Canada and a few other countries, milk comes in little plastic bags. 

I don't understand why people think that it is such a weird thing to have milk come in a bag. There is a lot less plastic involved in it. Smaller, thinner plastic produces less waste than a bulky plastic jug. Maybe it is because people who don't have milk in a bag don't know or understand how to pour it. For some reason, people can't comprehend putting the bag in a pitcher and snipping the corner. It really isn't that hard to comprehend, yet I get funny looks when I explain how it works.

Personally, I think bagged milk is cool. It takes up a lot less space in the fridge than a bulky gallon jug and it is better for the environment if it makes less plastic in the long run. Even so, people just don't understand. 

Over the years, milk has also been packaged in glass bottles and paper cartons, but you don't see many of those anymore. About the only kind of milk that I ever really see in a paper carton is the weird almond or soy milk or whatever other milk it is. I don't really know. I don't drink the artificial milk. As for glass bottles, we don't really see those anymore. I wonder why that is. Glass bottles are cool. They can be used for so many different things, so why did we switch over to mainly plastic packaging?

On another note, the packaging of milk is different depending on where you are but the way people drink it is usually always the same. You pour it into a glass and you drink. You don't add anything else to it, with the only exception being chocolate syrup to make chocolate milk. I have never in my life seen someone put ice in milk. That is with until Lis decided to one day sit down at the table at lunch with a glass of milk with ice in it.

(Note that this is actually iced coffee because I could not find a picture of iced milk. Let this be proof that ice in milk is in no way a thing. Carry on.)

Does anyone else in the world put ice in milk? Am I the only one that sees a problem with it? I don't think anyone else does this. Lis might just be a little crazy. Well, she's my friend so she ought to be a little crazy to put up with my crazy. Despite this, the disagreement between "iced milk" (I'm calling it iced milk because that is clearly what it is) and just a plain glass of milk still stands. 

Honestly, why put ice in milk if it is just going to get watery and gross? That is the way I see it. My opinion is not changing. The combo of ice and milk equals no for me. Personally, I don't drink milk as much as I used to, but this draws the line. This is too weird, and quite honestly feels wrong. It seems like a disservice to milk. It never asked to be treated with such disrespect. It only came here to make our bones stronger (That's what milk does, right? I'm no expert).

With that being said, I'll leave you to sit and ponder this new milk thing that my friend has revealed to me. I won't try it. However, if anyone else drinks milk with ice in it, leave a comment or let me know. I genuinely want to know because it just seems so weird to me. Thank you for reading my strange post on milk, I hope it didn't seem too strange.

Until Next Time...

Finals Week Is Here

It is December. Finals week is upon us. Stress is in the air. But for some odd reason, the stress for me is no longer manifesting in such a way that I am not even  stressed at all. There is no looming dread hanging over me. I know that for most people, finals week is a defining moment in the entire semester. However, I don't see the logic in thinking that way. Finals week is not a defining moment. These grades may or may not alter your grade and GPA for the semester, but no one grade is what changes the course of your entire college career. Too many times do people stress out over finals week as if they're fate for the rest of college will change if they don't make the grade they are hopeful for on their final exams. I believe that people shouldn't think this way. Finals are just another grade to me. Finals may be easy and some may be hard. It really depends on the class, the teacher, and how much you have worked during the semester for that class. If you work hard during the semester and don't wait until the end, then finals week should be a breeze. If not, then in my opinion you deserve to be stressed. You are the cause of your struggles if you don't do the work. Sure I was stressed last week, but it wasn't over finals. It was over the swiftness of everything that was coming towards me. I couldn't handle the workload of last week, but now that it is over I can be more or less stress free for finals week. I do still have stress, but it is no where near the monster that I was dealing with last week. This stress is more like a mosquito. They are annoying, but not something that is hard to manage. Given the choice, I'd rather a mosquito bite than a monster with teeth bared standing before me. I think that this is something that people need to realize. Worrying over a few tests that in no way define you is pointless. It is wasted effort when you could be doing something else. Maybe I have just found some good distractions, but even so, I in no way feel stressed. I don't quite understand it and I might be getting repetitive, but I hope my points are making sense. 

Anyway, if you are like me and are in the midst of finals week then take my advice. Try not to stress so much about grades that will be insignificant to you in the future. When you've long since graduated from college, these grades are going to mean nothing. They are just stepping stones to your degree. Sure it might be hard, but some stones are heavier to carry than others. In the end, they all end up in the same place. Who ever said stepping stones all had to be the same size and shape? I hope this metaphor makes some sort of sense. The point is, don't stress so much because it is wasted energy. Think about other things and let the work you have done throughout the semester show though your finals.

And to those of you who have already finished your finals or are near finished, don't stress about what you got for you grades. I guarantee that you have done better than you think you did. That is usually the case, because when we get stressed out we naturally start to doubt our abilities.

I think I'll end my speech here. Good luck on your finals and try not to stress so much.

Until Next Time...

Gingerbread and Breakfast

On this rainy day, Georgia College's Habitat for Humanity hosted a gingerbread house contest during the Hanging of the Green's event. My suitemate Oliver and I participated in it. We worked for days putting together a masterpiece that is our "Gingerbread and Breakfast."

The front of our little house.

It took hours of work rolling out fondant pieces to adorn the roof and walls. We even created a little fondant chimney to look like it was made of rocks. From pretzels, to fondant, to royal icing, to sugar lights, and grass made of cake frosting, we worked on our little house. It is one of the best gingerbread houses that I have ever helped build, and we are so proud of what we accomplished.

The back of the house with the little fondant chimney.

(Photo creds: Oliver)

(Picture used with permission. Photo creds: Oliver)

(Photo creds: Oliver)

However, we did not win the contest. We are really sad to have lost after putting hours of work into it in the midst of the end of the semester. It was a really nice break to have been able to spend time working on the house though, and I want to say that we could try again next year and maybe we would win. Even though we lost, I am happy to have participated. It is always fun to work together to build something as cute as our little house. I only wish that it had not have rained today to allow more people to come out and see the gingerbread house that we worked so hard on. All in all, I'll keep my chin up even though we lost. Sometimes I know I can be a bit of a sore loser, and in this case, I'm taking the loss pretty hard. It is never fun to work so hard on something only to lose in the end. But I suppose that it is a lesson to learn. A lesson in trying your best to accomplish something, even if you don't always succeed.

Stress: A Second Person Narrative

Rain pours down from the sky as you sit in your room staring blankly at the ceiling. The stress of finals, projects, and five million other things race across your mind. Occasionally the stress goes away when your mind drifts off to something else, yet always drifting back to the stress of everything. The last few weeks of the semester bring anxiety that ravages your mind and body. You bite your nails, sleep (but not feel rested), and curl up into a ball wishing for it all to end, wishing that you could go home and forget about school for a while. Every semester it is the same; you know finals week is coming all semester, yet it sneaks up on you always. There are things you could be doing to prepare for the tests that come running at you like a battering ram, but you sit down and do nothing. You do nothing in hopes that the stress will go away because every time you try and do something productive it only makes the stress worse.

On this gloomy day, the stress and anxieties that have built up over the semester are all the more present. You lounge about your room in a state of dysphoria as the world seems to be crashing down on you. In a way, your mind leaves your body. It leaves your body in such a way that you are left with nothing but a blank stare and an empty shell. Silence surrounds you like shadows. You think of nothing. You only stare. When your mind finally comes back to your body, you are left in a worse state than before. You are left in a state of panic as you realize you have many things to do in order to ensure that you do not leave the semester a failure.

Even so, you plan to wait until the next day in hopes that tomorrow will be better. In fact, you know tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow will be better because any day can be better than this one. Any other day. Just not today. Today, the stress has become too real. The stress has entrapped you. The stress has placed you in a trance that you cannot possibly be rescued from. The stress has become a monster looming over your shoulder, teeth bared and ready to chomp down on your mind as the weight of the semester hangs over your body as if it were a pendulum.

However, tomorrow...tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow you will go to class and be productive. Tomorrow you will be more awake than you have been all week. Tomorrow you will put on your armor and pick up your sword. Tomorrow you strike back against stress. Tomorrow you will be triumphant and with this triumph, you will crush your finals, projects, and anything else that stands in your way. You will emerge victorious in this battle; stress will trudge back into its hole.

Your thoughts snap back into thoughts of today, and the rain pours ever on.

Hemoglobin Hemorrhage

Let's talk about something that not everyone likes to talk about. Let's talk about menstruation. Now, don't just leave before we get to the good stuff, stick around for a while because this needs to be said a lot more than it is.

Menstruation is something that 50% of the population has to deal with, yet we sweep it under the table and discourage talking about it. Why is that? Why do we discourage something that is a natural bodily function, a function that is crucial to human existence? Why do we think that menstruating is too gross to talk about? I don't know the answer to these questions, but I do know that these are questions that we shouldn't even have to ask.

As someone who menstruates, I strongly disagree with the way the world treats periods. We tax things like pads and tampons as luxury items when having a period is not a luxury. We constantly say to women who seem slightly agitated, Is it that time of the month, as though it is a bad thing to menstruate. The list goes on and on and on. Does anyone else see the problem here?

I'm going to stop bashing the way the world treats menstruation because I think you get the overall idea. What I want to do now, is enlighten you as to what goes on during the "wonderful" time of the month where you bleed out of your vagina.

Basically, those who are cursed with the Red Dawn are shedding what the uterus has prepared for the production of a child. When the uterus is not gifted with such a child, it decides to punish the innocent owners of said uterus. 

An angry uterus results in cramping because the uterus is actually trying to kill itself. Doesn't that sound painful? It is. Excruciatingly painful. For some people, the pain is so unbearable that they cannot function as they normally would. The pain feels like something constantly kicking you in the lower back and stabbing your stomach. Because of cramping, sometimes it can be hard to eat or you feel like throwing up. With that being said, those who are faced with The Gift of Mother Nature find creative ways to deal with the pain. I once (tonight) made a bowl of oatmeal to use as a heat source to help calm the cramps...and because I was hungry. There are also numerous amounts of ways to lay down just to get comfortable, because cramping=not being able to find any sort of comfortable way to lay down.

Along with cramps, other Shark Week symptoms include (but are not limited to):

1. Craving every random food that comes into your brain, including ice cream...all the ice cream. 
2. Bursting into tears for no reason at all or bursting into tears at the sight of any cute fluffy animals. Especially tiny little piggies.
3. Turning from living life as a peaceful, happy individual to a raging demon-like creature.
4. Sleeping so much that you forget what being awake is like or not sleeping at all. There is no in between. 
5. Constantly being bloated to the point where you can't fit into your favorite pair of jeans.
6. Sneezing and feeling like you just wet your pants. Even though it is just a lot of blood quickly leaving your body and possibly staining your favorite pair of underwear.

I think I'll stop there. The list goes on for miles. Or more. Or less. It really depends on the person. Every Aunt Flo is different.

I would usually say that I don't know why I wrote this, but I do. I am tired of the world viewing periods as something that is shameful. I want to freely talk about it without it getting weird. It shouldn't. I also want people to realize that it sucks for everyone that has to deal with it, so if you don't deal with it, then make an effort to understand what half of the population has to go through for the majority of their lives. 

I hope this was informative despite being highly satirical. Everything that I have just told you is true, but satire seems to prove points (plus I find satire fun to write). 

Until next time...

Hello Again

To those of you who read my blog,

I know that it has been a long while since I have posted anything new. This is the first post in months. I'll admit I'm a little upset with myself for that. I like to write, and I have been neglecting that for a while. Maybe it's because I haven't had anything that I really wanted to write about. Or maybe it is just me being the slightest bit lazy. Whatever the reason is, I don't really know what yet, I am going to try to make myself find things to write about. I know that this isn't the first time that I've said this, but maybe this time I'll actually listen to myself.

Anyways, I still don't have anything that I really wanted to write about in this post, but maybe I'll just give a small update into the world of Katie. I am now a sophomore at Georgia College, and I think it is going relatively well. You know, aside from being buried in assignments like everyone is in college. Nothing has really changed from last year at school to this year. I think I am still relatively the same person, maybe I talk a little bit more than I used to, but nothing major is new with me. At least, I don't think so. Maybe other people see something different than I do; I don't really know.

There's not much else that I can think of to say at the moment, so I'll just leave you with the knowledge that I still plan to post to my blog. It might just be more spread out than I usually say it will be.

Until next time,
-Katie

An Accidental Hike

Today, I embarked on a hike that was a little over three miles...accidentally. Yes. I accidentally went on a three mile hike. You're probably wondering how I could accidentally go on a hike, or why I even ventured outside the safety of the indoors. My answer to that is I don't know. I ventured outdoors because I was bored, and then we got lost in the woods a little bit. We made it out alive.

The hike started off in the woods. We found a trail and followed it. Where we started was near a pond, where we ended up when we made it out of the woods, was an open field on the opposite side of the pond. I don't entirely understand how we could have possibly ended up on the opposite side, but it happened. As we were walking, we heard what sounded like creepy ice cream truck music. It was slightly alarming, but it stopped as we continued to walk. Eventually, after three miles, we ended up back at the car.

I don't really know what I wanted to say with this blog post, but maybe it has to do with stepping out of a comfort zone. As I'm going through my first year of college, I find myself doing things that I never thought I'd do like walking alone or walking over train tracks way up in the air. I've stepped out of my comfort zone many times, most of which were accidental. Maybe that's why I have started doing things that I never would have done before. With things being accidental, I don't think about it as much and just do it. I think that's the thing, the more we think, the less we do. maybe its just the way the human brain is wired to work. Constantly thinking about things that we don't like, or things that we are dead set on not doing makes us incapable of actually doing things and living our lives. If we constantly think more and do less, then we will never learn new things and have memorable experiences. We end up being stuck in our same old routines and never stepping foot in anything new. We create bubbles for ourselves and we get stuck.

For me, I have always kept to myself and stayed in my bubble. I think college has changed that for me a little bit and I'm actually doing different things. I don't really like the outdoors, and today's hike left me itchy, sweaty, sore, and probably a little sunburnt, but I realized I do like to walk. It's nice to just walk around and look at stuff from a different perspective. It makes the bubble I created for myself less of a bubble. So my message here is to go out and do things without thinking. Be a little reckless (be safe and make smart decisions while doing it though) and have an adventure. It might change your perspective a little bit.

Being Productive

It's common knowledge that being productive is a challenge. I often find myself stuck in a rut, unable to be fully productive. I might get part of something done, but I'll get distracted trying to complete it. Being productive is hard. For me, I end up sleeping or watching something on Netflix when I should be doing homework or studying. When I am at school, I end up with days where I am really productive and days where I can't get off my lazy butt for the life of me. 

Anyways, I'm on spring break, and I'm surprisingly being productive. Maybe I needed a change of scenery in order to maximize my productivity. I'm not really sure why I am working so diligently on my homework. Maybe it's because it's mainly writing that I have to do. Having to write for a class is different than writing for fun, but it's writing and it interests me. Sure, I am doing an assignment, but it allows me to be creative and write what I want to. It also helps me find things to write about for fun, which is really cool.

Whether it be homework or writing for fun, I've actually been really productive these past few days. I have no idea what sparked me to be productive as opposed to just lounging around all day. I also have no idea where I am going with this post. Maybe I just wanted to share a few thoughts on productivity and how I have actually managed to be more productive than I have been in several months. I assume it is because school can be draining. There are assignments constantly being thrown at you (sometimes it feels like getting hit in the face with a brick and then run over by a bus), and it can be hard to find a rhythm to getting all of the work done without pulling an all-nighter. I almost never find the time to finish it all without the stress that comes with the assignments, so it surprised me at how productive I've been this week. Maybe having a whole week that allows me to do things at my own pace without rushing to get something done is helping my productivity. I don't really know, but I am pleasantly surprised. 

For those who find yourselves stuck in an unproductive hole, know that you can get out of it. Perhaps try to avoid the things that distract you from doing your work, you might find that it helps. I've been trying to avoid sitting on the couch and watching Netflix, and I'd say it helped me out quite a bit. Good luck with being productive and thanks for reading.

Criticism and Change

It is currently spring break for me, so I have the week off from school. What most people do on spring break is to go out and have fun, usually at the beach. I, on the other hand, work on homework. One assignment in particular is my final portfolio for my creative writing class. The assignment is to provide a creative response to one of the selected pieces (I chose Dante's Inferno), some comments made from our workshops throughout the semester, and 25-30 pages of revised original work. As I've spent the past two days working on combining what I want to include in my 25-30 pages, I realized I've written a lot more poetry than I thought. I have also realized that my fiction writing is rather terrible. I know it might be better than what I think of it, but it still needs a massive amount of work.

Since the 25-30 pages are supposed to be revised, I have been going back and changing things that really need to be changed in my poems. However, whenever I get to a poem that has been workshopped or one that has had constructive comments made, I find myself stuck. One poem I took the constructive criticism and changed the poem, while still keeping its original message. The other poem, I cannot bring myself to change. I did make changes to the punctuation because the comments made about it made grammatical sense, but I couldn't change the actual words written on the page. I don't really know why I can't alter the poem, and it's not that I disagree with the criticism of the poem. I do agree with the criticism. Things need to be changed in the poem in order for the details within it to provide clarity to the reader.

Before this blog post turns into an essay, I think I'll get right to the point. I know that when you workshop a piece, you can choose to take the criticism about your work and revise your piece with it or you can leave it as is. Whenever we receive criticism we usually change in order to appease those making the comments. However, it is okay to go against it and leave something alone. With that being said, I believe that I will leave my poem as is because I simply cannot do otherwise. For whatever reason I can't change the poem, whether it be because I don't want to lose what the poem already has or because of what the poem is about, I know that it is okay. I suppose the "life lesson" I'm trying to point out is that it is okay to not change. Even if we're criticized into thinking that something could be better, we can still see the strength in what is already there. I believe that this doesn't just apply to writing. Sure, writing is about deciding whether or not to utilize criticism, everyday people can make the same decision. We can decide to change because someone says something about us that we don't like, or we can stand out and be different. I guess it's all about perspective.

Anyways, I didn't intend for this post to become deep or have any meaning behind it, but hey, the words just came out of my brain. I hope my thoughts on this help anyone who feels like criticism can be too much sometimes. Once again, thank you for reading.

A New Interest

I know it has been a while since I last wrote a post for this blog, but I haven't had much that I really wanted to write about or that I felt was worthy enough to share. For the past few days, I have wanted to write but nothing really came out of my brain and into words. I just sat at my computer staring blankly trying to come up with something to satisfy my desire to write, but nothing came to my brain. Today I was working on a script for my creative writing class, and I felt like writing a blog post too. It won't be a long one, just a short update, but here it is.

Currently, in my intro to creative writing class, we are learning how to do screenplays. Screenplays are not a type of writing that I have had any previous experience with, and I'll admit, I found it rather challenging to get the hang of. However, with some scriptwriting software (celtx) I found online and some patience (I know, I can have very little of that), I started to figure out more of what I was doing. Currently, I've only written two scenes of a script for one assignment, but the more I write for it, the more I like writing scripts. I suppose it is a bit early to decide that, but I think it is really cool how specific you can get when writing a script. Everything has to be concise and to the point, which I both enjoy and find fascinating.

In a way, despite finding it difficult to get the hang of, I think I prefer writing scripts over fiction pieces. Although I don't have much experience writing either, I can say that with time I think I'll get better at both. I have that to look forward to, but poetry will always be my favorite genre to write.

I might just play around with the scriptwriting software and write scripts for fun. Maybe I'll do that in my spare time rather than watch Netflix or nap (but we all know how I like my naps). Maybe I'll work on a script whenever I don't feel like watching Netflix. Who knows?

Anyways, that's it for this post. There's not much else I really want to say at the moment. I know this post is a short one, but thank you for reading.

Fear & Train Tracks

You stand overlooking the train tracks. A bridge sits before you with shallow water flowing far beneath. Before the fear can take hold of you, you take your first step across the tracks. There is no rail to grab onto if your balance is lost. Just you, the tracks beneath your feet, and the wind billowing past you threatening to push you over the edge.

Fear enters your mind as you take your first few steps. With the fear comes an orange haze blocking your vision. If you look ahead, you cannot see where you step and risk falling. If you look down, you see how far down the ground really is and you grow dizzy. Your head spins. No matter where you look, the orange haze continues to fog your mind and the fear grows ever on. One foot in front of the other, choosing to look down at where you place your feet, you trek onward. 

Halfway across the bridge, you realize that it is not as bad as it was in the beginning. The orange haze of fear starts to lose its grasp on your mind. You begin to see other colors. The blue of the sky. The specks of green in the trees. The colorful graffiti that paints the tracks. Crossing the distance up in the air, you take back control of the fear. Although your fear continues to grow, you are able to keep it at bay as you see the colorful world around you at the heights of your adventure. 

As you approach the end of the bridge, back to solid land, you begin to see more color than you could see before. You see rainbows where once lay only an orange haze. The fear is kept locked away as you reach the end. You place your feet on solid ground and look back at what you have just accomplished. You, with your intense fear of heights, crossed over the train tracks with nothing below you. You think back on what could have happened if you were to fall. Those dark thoughts seem like nothing as you stare on at the colors that surround you. You see every color as the original fear slips away into nothing.

Yesterday I did what I never thought I would do. I walked across a bridge with nothing but train tracks. (See the picture below)

I have a fear of heights so it was borderline traumatizing for me to do. It was spur of the moment and it was quite a long bridge (or at least I thought it was with my fear making it scarier than it actually was) with nothing but a long drop beneath it. I suppose fear is something that is a bit trivial. If you let it control you, you never really get to experience anything. But, if you face it, you can do the unthinkable. Sure it is terrifying to do something you are afraid of, but once you do it you have both experienced something new and faced your fears. However, facing your fears does not necessarily mean that you overcome them. I faced my fear of heights and did what I will never do again. I am still afraid of heights, and I don't think that it is something I will ever get rid of. At least I can say that I did what I did. It was an experience, and I'm glad I did something new for me. 

I Am Alive: An Update

Yes, I am still alive. It has been quite a while since I have written a blog post and a whim of inspiration (if you can even call it inspiration, I really just felt like writing) swept over me. So, here I am, back at it again.

I suppose I should begin with an apology to all of my dear readers (even if my readers only consists of my amazing boyfriend and my wonderful family, my readers are dear to me). I am sorry that it has taken me months to write another post. I made a statement with one of my previous posts that I would try to write as often as I could, and sadly it has not been often enough. It has been months, and for that, I am sorry.

Now, this post is not going to be dedicated solely to apologies. I feel as though I need to update on my college experience. After all, it has been a whole semester since I have written anything.

My first semester of college was a roller-coaster. I was writing multiple papers weekly. I was constantly working on assignments with little hope of a break between them. At times I thought that I would just give up because the courses I was taking were difficult. In the end, I let my courses get in the way of my writing. I only had one English class, and it never gave me the chance to write what I want to write. With that being said, I allowed my classes to push my writing aside just to keep up with the bustling life of a college student. Although that happened, I survived my first semester of college with 1 A and 5 B's. These may not have been the grades I wanted, but I am pleased with the outcome.

Now I am in my second semester of my freshman year of college. I get to start in classes for my major, which include Intro to Creative Writing. My creative writing class is easily my favorite class at the moment. Already, I have gotten to write some more poetry and share it with my fellow creative writing students. There may only be 15 of us, but we are all so similar and different at the same time. The atmosphere of the class is one that I want to be in. I have always been nervous to share my writing with anyone, but in that class I am freed from those nerves.

Throughout this coming semester, I hope to write more often than I did last semester. Having courses that allow me to open up my creativity with writing, I should like to think that this hope shall be fulfilled. In addition to writing more, I have another goal in mind. I shall strive to have even higher grades than the previous semester.

Thank you all for reading my simple update on things. I shall write again soon.