Oh, happy new year, by the way! I just realized that I haven't posted on here since then. Well, I guess I'll start there, at the beginning of the new year.
I finally did what I've been talking about/wanting to do for quite a while: I spent New Year's Eve camping out along the Tournament of Roses Parade route in order to have a great viewing spot for said event the morning of the New Year! Of course, I was not alone in this endeavor, for most of the evening I was accompanied by my friends Rusty and Tori, as well as all of the families and youth groups and others who were also on the street with us. After she got off of work, after we'd all rung-in the new year at midnight, my flattie and her boyfriend (well, I guess when they got there he wasn't her boyfriend yet...but that changed that night/morning) showed up! And despite expecting to not be able to sleep, I fell asleep around 3-ish and then woke up just around sunrise. And despite the lack of sleep, and the sun in our faces, we thoroughly enjoyed the parade!
This next part requires a bit of a preface. A year ago I was working for ThinkinBig Communications, a PR Firm/event planners-coordinators/well, let's be honest ThinkinBig is awesome and does it all (mostly because we've got such an amazing Principal - Lorraine). Well, last year's Christmas present from ThinkinBig to all of our clients/associates/various connections was I am not a Paper Cup along with an explanation of a "resolution revolution". Here's the explanation:
"'The Experiment: What's the word? A resolution revolution'
New Year's resolutions have never worked for me, especially in a world of information overload. It's another list that gets lost before January ends. That's why in Y2K some friends and I committed to a WORD for the year. A single word or short phrase that would be the compass, true north, filter and driving force for the year ahead. One you want to own. One you remember. One that inspired you, makes you think, grow and learn.
For example, my JUMP year I ran a marathon, took bigger risks in business, and learned new ways of relating to the most important people in my life. Another year, PAUSE inspired me to take time to read, to build margin in my schedule, and to be quicker to listen and slower to speak.
In a year of DOWNTURN, UNCERTAINTY, CHANGE and BAILOUT, we need more GOOD, HOPE and PERSPECTIVE. The power of a single word can shift opinions, change events, reshape habits...
-Lorraine O'Keefe
principal, ThinkinBig Communications"
So, last year I tried to pick a word and it didn't work the way I'd hoped. Mostly because I picked a word that sounded better than really choosing something based on meaning. So this year I intended to really spend time thinking about the word I'd choose for the year. Based on a lot of things I'd been thinking about lately, about life and getting outside my comfort zone, and well, Beauty and the Beast...or at least a song from it...wanting adventure in the great wide somewhere...and just when I was deciding that my word should be adventure, I was reminded of a French phrase often used by the Doctor (as portrayed by David Tennant): allons-y. Below is my explanation of allons-y:
allons {a-like in apple+llons-like you're gonna say long but you don't get to the ng and you don't pronounce the s if there's not a vowel following the word} from the french verb aller meaning in the infinitive "to go", this is the nous {new} or "we" conjugation meaning: we go.
y {like you're saying the letter "e"} a french clitic (think like the English "an", "a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level." - thanks wikipedia) taking the place of a location-in other words, generally meaning "there".
allons-y {a-like in apple+llon-like you're gonna say long but you only sorta get to the ng+s-which is more like a sound between s and z+y-like you're saying the letter "e"} a two-word french phrase meaning let's go = my word/phrase for the year as it encapsulates carpe diem attitude that necessitates more than just me, alone "going"...in community and with God on this adventure.
y {like you're saying the letter "e"} a french clitic (think like the English "an", "a morpheme that is grammatically independent, but phonologically dependent on another word. It is pronounced like an affix, but works at the phrase level." - thanks wikipedia) taking the place of a location-in other words, generally meaning "there".
allons-y {a-like in apple+llon-like you're gonna say long but you only sorta get to the ng+s-which is more like a sound between s and z+y-like you're saying the letter "e"} a two-word french phrase meaning let's go = my word/phrase for the year as it encapsulates carpe diem attitude that necessitates more than just me, alone "going"...in community and with God on this adventure.
So, this is all the preface to what I really meant to update you about.
Going back to before New Year's, again: for about a month or so I've had this ad show up on Facebook and as with most of the ads on Facebook, I ignored it. Well, I ignored it to the best of my ability. But it was advertising studying in Scotland! If you know me, you know I'd find that difficult to ignore. But I convinced myself that it wasn't really aimed at me. Instead it was supposed to be aimed at people who needed to do their undergrad studies...or so I assumed. A few weeks ago I was shown the error of my assumption as the wording of the ad changed to: Get your Masters in a year at a Scottish University. They knew how to get to me. I clicked on the link, however wary that it may be something strange or dangerous, or fake. I read, I opened new tabs of information from the different Universities where this scholarship would be accepted. I favored St. Andrews, but they had the usual sounding/looking programs that I'd seen other places that would be mildly fascinating, but weren't necessarily something I'd prefer to study. So, I moved on to the other schools, and in amongst the University of Aberdeen's taught programmes, I found it! A programme for me on The Novel! And I don't mean novel as in new and interesting things which may be called novel. No, it's that now-common form of literature that hasn't been around as long as we may like to think. That form that was belittled, along with its readers, as being silly and frivolous near its inception, but has since been associated with great works of literature, and the "intelligentsia". And so, I am working on an application to the University of Aberdeen to work on an MLitt in "The Novel". If I get in (and can raise the funds) I'll be leaving for Scotland in the Fall to commence my graduate studies. (!!!!!!!!!) If not, however, I'll be here still, happy to know that I have found an interesting programme of study and that I've applied for grad school, and working hard to get words words words (the bookstore) set-up!
Well, there you have it! There's my update. Please be praying for me in this new adventure of applying for grad school - primarily for God's will in all of this, but also for my sanity as I try to pull everything together for the application, and whatever may or may not come after. Thank you!
