Thursday, January 31, 2013

Thanks and Goodbye Blogspot, Hello WordPress

Well, I've made the move to WordPress! I've gotten everything transferred as well as a new post, so go ahead and check it out!

kileykatey.wordpress.com

Over the past year and a half, Blogspot has been a great place to start out, and I've shared some of my greatest memories here. From the beginning of my year abroad, through Australia and France and all the adventures in between, to New York and my internship and back, all the way to where I am now. I have a feeling these coming months are going to be so very interesting and challenging in different ways, and I'm looking forward to sharing, looking back, and looking forward on WordPress.

Thank you so much to everyone who's followed me thus far. This was a record-breaking month of page views, and I'm happy to say farewell to Blogger on such a high note. See you at WordPress!

Over there from now on,
Kiley

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Going Back in Time

Okay, so I didn't go back in time. But I did go back to my high school during the school day for the first time since I graduated in 2008. While the halls and even atmosphere were so familiar, it was beyond odd to not see anyone from my graduating class or even any of the surrounding classes of 2005-2011. I spent the entire day doing double and triple takes, only to have to remind myself that everyone I went to school with has long since graduated.

Let me back up just a little further. I'm thinking about going back to school for teaching, so I contacted one of my high school English teachers last week. This week, she invited me to observe a few of her classes, and I was really excited about this until my alarm went off at 6:00am. I haven't been up before the sun in quite a while, but despite my slow start, I was on track to be on time. Unfortunately, I didn't anticipate the construction in the high school parking lot or the line at the office to get my visitor's pass. Guess who was a few minutes late to class?

I skirted down the halls like a guilty, tardy high schooler and slid into the classroom where I was greeted by my gracious and understanding teacher-host, as well as two of my younger sister's friends. Though I didn't see anyone from my class, my sister's friends and my friends' younger siblings were more than kind when they saw me in the hallway today. The friendly familiar faces really were so refreshing.

The classes I observed were all in the same room I sat in during English my senior year, along with the collage of photos our teacher printed for us or allowed us to put up throughout the year. The collection spans back at least to the 90s. From my class alone, there was Kara cheesing on the track, Avni looking like a diva, Jackie smiling at her desk, Matt with his mouth hanging open and Paul photo-bombing the background, and my then-boyfriend, Jake, and me on Lumberjack Day, a holiday my class invented and is still celebrated. (Everyone wears flannel the Friday after winter break. We went so far as to build a forest in the parking lot using everyone's discarded Christmas trees.) So many of us, from my grade and the surrounding grades, are made immortal on those walls, and it made me smile, laugh, feel nostalgic, and a little sad about those who I've lost touch with over the years.

Though I got to observe Performance Poetry, Creative Writing, Multicultural Literature, and Publications (the newspaper), my favorite was IB English, the class I took. The class was discussing Hamlet, in just the same way my class did. I looked back to the wall of pictures, which were also speckled with quotes, and found one of my favorite 'IB-isms' from my class:

Why was Fortinbras so shiny?
Because he was Hamlet's foil.
-Fred

I walked through the halls and saw a few of my old teachers, feeling like I was right back in high school, but in a more respected adult way. Being treated just slightly differently made me feel weird, and it was even weirder that the teachers I expected to see, who have since retired, weren't there. Of course I knew things would be different, but when they were it was weird, and it was weirder when things were the same! Behold the paradox of growing up.

In the Publications room (where my sister is the co-editor in chief!), I looked at back issues of Odin's Word - the only title fit for a school newspaper where the mascot is a viking. The Senior Issue from 2006 happened to be at the top of the stack, and I quickly started flipping through. I spent a good amount of time with the class of '06 in my freshman and sophomore years, and it was like hitting rewind to the first time I read the senior shout-outs all those years ago and wished they weren't all leaving for college.

As I flipped through other issues, I noticed photos of George W. Bush and fashion pages displaying girls in short and frayed jean mini-skirts, leggings that stopped at the calf, and Birkenstocks. Think the opening scene of 21 Jump Street, complete with the guys with frosted tips or hair down to their shoulders. I remembered or at least vaguely recognized all the names of the editors and interviewees, and it was hard to believe that we've all moved on in at least one way, shape, or form.

I'm thinking of the I'll-show-'em attitude in Just Friends, and the awkward familiarity when Hannah goes home to the Midwest in Girls, and the happy but odd in/exclusive dynamics of the American Pie series. Pieces of my 'going back' experience are similar, I guess, but maybe I just didn't expect to feel all these things at once. Regardless, all the movies, shows, and books in the world couldn't have prepared me for the mix bag of emotions I felt today. It's only made worse by the five-year reunion emails I've started getting from Classmates.com.

It seems I'm growing up, and there's not a damn thing I can do about it.

Still, with so much ahead I really can't complain about my open-ended and promising future. Plus my sister was kind enough to let me tag along with her for part of the day, and I was mistaken for a substitute teacher on more than one occasion. Despite the emotional roller coaster I rode, I'm putting a mark in the win column for career-Kiley, and that's even without getting into how much fun I had observing and being in a classroom where (at least some of) the students are eager to learn.

Let's hope the next five years are as good to me as the last five have been, and someone send suggestions my way on how to reconcile these crazy conflicting emotions. Or I guess I could just, you know, grow up.

Here and there,
Kiley

Monday, January 21, 2013

My Only Resolution

So I'm sitting here trying to figure out which of the hundreds of posts I've thought about writing in the last year I'd like to write tonight. My attention veers back and forth between the blinking cursor and The Lion King (I've been debating since Scar's creepy song with the hyenas about becoming king, and - spoiler alert - now Mufasa is about to die. I can't take this any more.) and Mean Girls (too late, Simba's nudging Mufasa and I'm about to cry because I have the movie-emotional stability of a nervous five-year old) and I realize that I'm a little unfocused.

Even though Timon and Pumba are about to enter and Gretchen Weiners was just denied Candy Cane-grams, I've turned off the TV. Now I can put together an entire thought. I don't try to de-motivate myself or intentionally procrastinate - does anyone? - but when it comes to the things that only concern me, I find I have a much greater tendency to put them on the back burner. I wanted to write a post this weekend? Well, I'm tired and these movies are on. I meant to work out this weekend? Well, so-and-so bailed and now I could go out instead. The list goes on, but those actually happened in the past few days.

When I was reading 90 Days to Your Novel for NaNoWriMo, one of the first things Sarah Domet, the author, said was that plenty of people think about writing, but you're only a writer if you actually write something. What a novel observation.

What's the difference between a language enthusiast who speaks four languages, and one who only kind of knows their native tongue? The person who plays a dozen instruments, and the person who listens to tracks longingly? The person who travels the world, and the one who stares at the globe or browses the internet?

The first group of people are DOERS. They DO things. (And yes, they must also have the means, either because of their own hard work or by being born into fortunate circumstances, and probably some degree of talent.)

There are so many things that I've always thought 'Hey, that'd be cool to do/learn/see', and I think I can fairly say I've tried my best to accomplish those things. Part of what helps is always having an end goal in sight. In high school, it was to get to college and play soccer. When I quit soccer, it was to do well in my major, then biology, and go abroad. When I changed majors, it was to excel in those new majors, English and French. When I graduated, it was to get into publishing. Up until now, I've always been working toward something.

Now that my big picture is a little less clear - teacher? editor? writer? baby baboon handler?? - I want to work on the little things that have always been put on the back burner. I mean, let's face it. Even if I do multiple applications or resumes a day, I've got some extra time on my hands and they could stand some useful employment while I'm, well, unemployed.

My original plan was to pick all these various things up at the New Year, but between visiting friends, hanging out with my family, and the 1000+ piece jigsaw puzzle I bought and finished over five days, I just didn't get around to it.

But who says the New Year has to be the time for resolutions? Why not start over now?

I couldn't think of a good reason, so here I am. My resolution is simply to DO stuff. Write stuff, read stuff, try new stuff, get my stuff in shape, there's all kinds of stuff to be done. It may seem like a small victory to have managed to turn off the TV to write this post tonight (DAMN IT, I just realized my computer clock is an hour behind. How did that happen??), but it's a step in the right direction. Before I go to bed, I'm going to read and that'll be another small victory. As I continue to hash out my list and make progress on the DOing front, I'll keep you posted.

Until then, just imagine how (much) cool(er) of a person you would be if you actually went for it and did just half the things you're interested in. Think of the life experiences you'd have, the people you'd know, the things you'd learn! I'm willing to bet it'll make a huge difference, and I'm really eager to see what the days to come have in store for me if I just get busy and DO.

Here and there,
Kiley

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Hiatus No More

Whew. It has been a little over two months since I've posted. How time flies.

I left you in the middle of NaNoWriMo with the serious appeal to anyone within reaching distance to smack me if I stopped writing which, sadly, no one followed through on. As a result (or because of my own undoing...), I haven't written. And I hate it! I won't monotonously bullet point or cruise you through my past few months - they were anything but boring, to say the least, and I owe them the justice of a real post - but this is my new promise to start posting once a week. I'm back in Cincinnati for the foreseeable future, so while I'm anchored down, I may as well let my mind and fingers wander for as long as the rest of me can't.

Maybe it's because I just watched the first season of Girls last night and am feeling inspired/terrified, because I'm so sick of writing boring cover letter after cover letter with no call backs, or because I miss writing for the pure joy that it brings me, but I have to get back to writing.

Here's to a year of doing, of making things happen, of staying busy, and most of all being happy. Here's to a year of life still getting in the way and making the commitment to write through it anyway. I have no excuse for my silent keyboard, and it's time I make some noise.

I know I've said it before, and I feel a bit like How I Met Your Mother's character Marshall with his sweeping declarations, but I'll see you all back here in a few days. Bear with me, and come along for the ride.

Here and there (and by that I mean my mind this time),
Kiley