Week 30: A recap, a return... no excuses.

One might perhaps call my long absence an epic fail as far as my blogging goal this year… and I am not here to disagree. I am not even here to offer an excuses, because I happen to abhor excuses. But perhaps I may renew my attempt for what remains of the year, and begin that renewal by relating to you what exactly I’ve been up to in my absence.

It would be pointless, for one to even attempt to recount point by point my time spent away from blogging, not to mention boring. However, here are the highlights, the cliff notes version if you will.

There was a span of roughly a week that I spent in Texas. It was a spur of the moment trip that I took for work. I was asked to travel there to assist a new store in opening. It was a quick turn around in that within only a few days after to agreeing to it I was boarding a plane an on my way.

This was my first time flying, and I must say that I was initially super nervous about it, but it wasn’t bad at all. Each flight went really smooth, and ultimately I really enjoyed the experience.

While the hours we worked while we were down there were long, it was a lot of fun to be able to help a store get ready for their open. I really enjoyed working alongside the people that would be working down there, and giving them ideas as to how we run things in our own department here in the MI.

Plus the weather there was gorgeous! The locals thought we were a bit crazy, because for them the temperatures were a bit cold, but considering we took this trip during the first week of April, their weather was much preferable to our freezing temperatures.

The next notable event of my absence was the All Time Low concert that Sarah and I went to at the end of April at The Filmore in Detroit. It was so much fun, and such a great show! All Time Low was the headliner, but The Summer Set, Hey Monday, and Yellowcard were also at that particular date.

There just aren’t words, I’m telling you…

I took a photography class this spring.; it lasted ten weeks, and just ended two or three weeks ago. It was a lot of fun to finally take the time to really learn how to use my Digital SLR camera. I bought it when I graduated (4 years ago, can you believe it? I can’t!) and just haven’t taken the time to really play with it.

I mean, yeah I took a photography class my senior year, but a manual camera is a lot different than a digital. More so than you would think… But ultimately I'm glad it's over. It was a bit much taking a class two days a week, considering I had to fit it in with a full time work schedule. I'll finish my degree, eventually.

I have all the time in the world after all.

But really, at this particular point in time, the most exciting thing is that I went and saw the final Harry Potter movie last Friday. I can hardly believe that it’s done, that the final movie has come out…. Let me tell you, it was SO good. I loved it from start to finish.

I didn’t find it quite as emotional as the book, but I’ve never found the movies to play on my emotions the same way that the books did. That’s not to say that that is a completely bad thing, it just means that there is no way to really accurately compare the books to the movies. It’s best to consider them to be separate entities.

Anyway, this is my lack luster reemergence into the world of blogging. I’ve taken the moment to give you a brief catch-up, if you’re out there, what have you been up to in my absence?

I’ll talk to you soon.

Long time, No Blog

The year before last I had the goal of writing and posting something everyday to this blog. For the most part I held to that goal. Last year I promised, after accomplishing the previous goal, that I would continue to occasionally continue to post.

And I did… very occasionally.

So this year I am proposing a new goal. This seems a funny turn of phrase considering that I could only be making this proposal to myself, but nonetheless… here it is.

This year, 2011, I plan to make weekly posts. They can be about anything, I am only stipulating that I write SOMETHING and post it every week. It seems to me to be a worthy and obtainable goal and one that I am certainly looking forward to… at least for the moment.

We shall see if my enthusiasm remains through the rest of the year. After all, it is early yet.

New Years Eve

This project ends on Saturday and I've already nearly forgotten that I needed to get a blog post up today. That would have made twice this week!

That being said, it will be strange to no longer have rules in place that ensure that I need to write and post something by a particular deadline. That being said I've learned a lot over the course of the past year. I've made a few blunders, and definitely achieved some amount of success. I've definitely tackled the initial goal of writing more often and consistently.

Maybe over this next year I can get some more of that novel written. That would be cool, especially since it's a project that I started working on nearly seven years ago. It's definitely a work in progress.

I have two more days left at work as far as this week is concerned, and then I have a week before I head back to school. Hopefully I'll be able to pick up some more hours next week. It all depends on how busy the store gets and if they can spare any hours for seasonal's.

I turn twenty-one on Saturday and plan to spend the day at work, which in all honestly I prefer since it may be my last opportunity to work over break. At any rate, I'm excited for the coming year. It's full of potential.

Focus Fail.

For each of our out of class assignments in JRN 200, we have to make it into a blog post. I have a portion of the blog that is due Thursday done, and I think I'm going to finish it tomorrow. I am also beginning to think that I choose a more complex subject for my article than I may have initially intended. However, I am happy to report that my second out of class story seems to be coming along nicely.

I'm also still working on my application for the school of journalism. I just need to finish off my resume, and write the essay about my career goals. Have I mentioned that I'm a little intimidated by the whole process?

I feel like I have a lot of things to get done in the next couple days, but my focus just isn't what I need it to be. Basically, I am aware of all the things that I need to get done, and so so rather than focus on one thing at a time, my mind attempts to focus on several things at once.

Hopefully tomorrow my focus will be where it needs to be. In the meantime I have some reading that I need to get done to be prepared for class.

Decisively Indecisive Goals

I really enjoy reading but I don't feel like I've managed to do much of that lately. Well, maybe that's not strictly true. What I mean to say is that I haven't read many actual books lately, but have actually still read just as much as ever online.

I was under the misguided impression that once last semester ended that I would have the time to read, but as usual I was wrong. Although, next week may be the exception since I'm not on the schedule at work at all. Of course, that too could easily change. I suppose we shall see.

Currently my goal is to finish reading "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies", which I am half way through and loving. It's a good goal I think.

Another thing that I haven't done much of lately is just write for the sake of writing. I always decide that I'm going to write and then end up putting it off for one reason or another. I mean, I blog and some days that is easier than others but I don't write as much as I once did. I want to do more of that; the writing that is, not the not writing. Maybe I'll make another goal to write something other than just these blog posts at least once a week.

That sounds like a solid goal, but maybe I won't commit to it just yet... But it sounds like a potential idea. Yeah? Yeah. I know, I'm being indecidive but what's new right?

Goal Accomplished

Down to the wire, yet again; this seems to be becoming a trend no matter how hard I try to break it. However, it could be argued that tonight was not my fault. Yes, true I could have posted earlier in the day, but it didn’t seem to be necessary.

I went to the bowling alley with my family, as I tend to do on Friday nights that I’m not stuck at work. Not to imply that I don’t absolutely love work, not to imply that at all… Generally we get home at nine, but of course this couldn’t be the average night.

Let it just be said that an excess of alcohol and ego was involved. It quickly turned into a long night, but thankfully I made home and thus have managed to finish a week without earning the obligation to responsible for posting this weekend.

Thank God, goal accomplished!

Bearing Witness

I own this documentary that I’m particularly fond of called, “Bearing Witness “. It follows four female war correspondents who recount their careers to that date. They also talk about what drove them to lives they lead and why they continue to honor the paths that they have chosen.

At one point in the documentary one of the women talks about the role of journalists in general. I need to watch it again because I can’t seem to recall the quote fully, but I remember the gist of it. Journalism, she points out, is about being there and bearing witness. It’s about being a voice willing to speak out, and fighting to be heard in the place of those who stand voiceless.

Sometimes I lose track of what my ultimate goal is. Sometimes the stress that comes coupled with paying for school, and finding the time to study as well as work is so overwhelming that my path’s purpose becomes hazy.

I want to be a journalist because I want to be that voice for those who find they have none. My dad once saw me watching that documentary and he wasn’t too thrilled by the idea of his daughter in a war zone. I’m not saying that I want to go to war zones and report, but I am saying that I am prepared to follow my path where it may lead.

I want to be that journalist who isn’t afraid to pursue the truth, and speak the truth. I want to be a voice for the voiceless. Journalism is my major because I want to bear witness.