Cats & Colleges

Before I begin sharing about myself, I want to give a major congratulations to David for getting his PhD and becoming DOCTOR David Nicol. I can appreciate the heart, soul, and time you put in to completing this endeavor, and I more than commend you for it. In fact, I am awed by your dedication. I am honestly not sure if I am capable of pursuing a PhD in my own future. Congratulations on completing this stage of your life, and the new life experiences it will bring for you.

Now, from what I can tell, nobody has so much as glanced at this family blog since the end of the previous school year. I know we pass around info from time to time, but I highly doubt we really know the full updates of one anothers' lives. Well, maybe everybody else does, but I'll admit I've felt a tad out of the loop lately. I figured I'd share a slight insight into my life that some of you may already know (in which case I apologize for any rambling or repetition), or that some of you may be shocked to hear. I would also love to hear from everybody else, even if I have heard about it. It never hurts to hear the stories from the person living them.

In the past few months I have put a lot of thought into what comes next in my life. While I have greatly appreciated my parents' reluctant, yet understanding, support of my decision to attend DVC, I always knew that was far from being the end of my education. I have already sent in my applications to Seattle University and New York University. I'll admit that I felt a tad reminiscent of senior year at Carondelet with the frenzy of balancing my school work with all the effort and time put in to make my applications pristine. Having sent them off, I feel both a sense of relief and nervousness. I have at least six weeks of impatient waiting ahead before I will hear back, but I choose to remain optimistic about my acceptance into either school.

I am definitely looking forward to the wetter, chillier weather. There, I admit to the fact that I am the worst Californian ever. My skin refuses to tan, and I much prefer the damp, overcast, and rainy weather provided by both Seattle and New York. The first day I noticed the rain here in the Bay Area, I actually went outside and jumped around with joy for about thirty minutes, nearly tearing up from sheer pleasure that fall had FINALLY arrived.

If my parents have not shared, I am hoping to get an apartment of my own until the end of this school year. I think that having the space to myself to focus on my studies and revel in the new found freedom will be both an important and unique experience for me. Most of my life I have relied upon people to be around to entertain me, but having the chance to be alone in my living situation could be just the experience I need to expand my sense of independence. I know some of you (especially you, Kate, or Kathryn, if you still wish us to convert to that), have teased me about my fears of the little independent acts, such as riding the BART train alone. So, this is my major leap into an independent future, with bright hopes of it bringing out the best in me. Sure, my future living arrangements have not been totally settled. Although, I will not lie, I hope that if either of my parents ever read this they can appreciate why it is of such importance to me.

Anyways, in all of this rambling it is my way of saying that I will be much farther away soon enough, and I will miss all of you at the monthly family dinners. I will do my best when I leave to keep in touch with everybody, as you all mean the world to me. I sincerely look forward to this next stage in my life and the adventures and challenges it will present. I am fully aware that in comparison to Hennessy studying abroad in Chile (I am completely hooked on your blog Hennessy, I cannot get enough of it.), David getting his PhD, and Kate's new job, this seems extremely trivial in comparison, but as far as my life goes, it is a pretty big deal.

I hope everyone is doing well, and I hope to hear more from everybody either by email, Facebook, phone, or on this blog.

Love,
Jen

*The picture at the top is one that I took earlier today of Cody's cat, Annie. The picture below it is one of Chris' cat, and my personal favorite cat of all time, Rusty, that I took a few weeks ago. I have made it a personal goal to make better use of my camera, even for such small projects as random photo shoots with friends or stalking my friends' cats. While they are far from my finest shots, I still take pride in their raw vision through my sporadic and sudden impulses. I also promised myself that I would progressively learn the ins and outs of Photoshop Elements before attempting to get my hands on the newer, better version that was recently released. Bill, I would love to talk to you more about suggestions on lenses and camera technique in the near future.

If you have made it this far, then my deepest apologies for the excessive rambling. It is late, and I felt I had a lot to share and that a blog that provided me with family feedback was the best source to release all of that energy and thought into.