College Love on a Sunny Monday

I have realized that I spend an awful lot of time talking about the relationship and location part of my life on this blog... but the middle word in the title is New Career and what better way to approach that topic than by reaching back to the place where it all started: college. So here, for alumni and non-alumni alike, an ode to the place I called home for 4 beautiful years of my life. Dear Colby, my sweet alma mater, As spring approaches and I find myself in a highly spirited college community, I find myself missing you for all the things you taught me and the reasons I loved you to begin with. You are not a D1 school , no… and you are small and nestled away in my beautiful home state of Maine. You are not all over the news or flashed around. When you have status updates, it is about things going on in the world, your travels, or your outrage at some injustice. And for all those reasons, you were perfect for a girl with an insatiable hunger for the world and learning. I miss the feeling I got the first day I stepped foot on your campus and knew that I had found the school of my dreams. Of walking across the hill by Miller library on cold, starry nights with a long night of studying ahead and a hot coffee in hand. Of sitting on the grass when it FINALLY got warm and pretending to read while friends played Frisbee and held hands by Johnson pond. I miss chatting with professors on three hours of sleep about cyclical poverty in Brazil and feeling my heart race with excitement about the possibilities of field work abroad. Of round table literary discussions in Spanish. I miss packed ice hockey games against Bowdoin. Bonnie’s Diner for pancakes with Anna when you’re bleary-eyed before LSATS on a Saturday morning. Of going to my boss’s house for a homecooked meal and learning how to make cheesecake and cookies. I miss skating on the pond in the winter and 7 am yoga at the gym. I miss 9 pm a cappella rehearsals that were half about singing and half about sharing stories and ideas with some of the most incredible women I know. I miss sneaking champagne into the chem free dorms when a friend finished her thesis and lighting sparklers and running through the grass the night before graduation. I miss seeing the little kids trick-or-treating on campus in the fall and helping them carve pumpkins. I miss karaoke and college nights at the Blues Club. I miss having friends from five different countries sitting at a dining hall table with me. I miss working in my community diligently and feeling like I really belonged. I miss feeling inspired and empowered everyday by a passion for life and the knowledge that we can all change the world and do anything we set our mind to. I miss senior steps and Bro’s pet pig. I miss feeling lucky everyday that I was blessed enough to go to a school that shaped so much of who I am and my confidence in myself (thought it waxes and wanes as of late). I miss long talks and laughs with friends over pizza and copious amounts of wine. And I am thankful every time that I pick up an Alumni magazine that I was fortunate enough to have known people who not only talked about doing good, they have gone out and done it. Even if it means taking a smaller paycheck or being uncomfortable. More than anything, I miss being around people who understand and nod knowingly when you talk about the incredible experience you had, so often difficult to put into words. I miss feeling a part of something bigger than myself and being on the inside instead of a voyeur on the outside of something exciting like I am here. So Colby, please know my love for you is strong. And even though I will never live in a college town again where all my fellow alumni are, I will always think of you and appreciate the opportunities you gave to me. And that instead of a typical “college” experience, I feel daily that I got so much more… I had an experience where I learned til my brain hurt, pushed myself to do more for the world instead of just myself, and truly grew to realize what it is that matters in life. The road has not been straight and narrow, but you always told us that was the best way to live- to take chances, jump in headfirst, fall down and get back up and never feel like any dream is out of reach. Doing my best to continue embracing passion, make changes, and make things better wherever this journey takes me. XOXO

L-O-V-E

TGIF! I'm sitting at Starbucks finishing up some last minute A/P reading (aka blogging? Shame on me) having just had my weekly Friday coffee with Mer. In a few minutes I will be headed to the dance studio where the inundation of love and craziness with the preschoolers will begin. The insanity will last until about 11 pm tonight so I'm embracing the quiet while I can. Moving right along...it's been a great week of work, school, revelations and AHEM, engagements??? YAY JON AND SHANNON!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :) I am so happy for them! They are an incredible model of love. Couldn't be more delighted by this news! Interestingly, the fact that they have me thinking about "models of love" is sort of spurring my post today. Sometimes I feel like I grew up watching too many Disney movies and was quickly disillusioned with relationships as a teenager and college student. Where was the knight in shining armor with the flowers and dazzling smile? I thought for a long time that I wasn't the relationship "type" since no one could meet those expectations. BUT, I am slowly learning that you can't judge love by Cinderella. What you CAN take from those cheesy classics are core virtues: not judging a book by its cover, perseverance, sacrifice, inner beauty, doing what's right, standing up for what you believe in, etc. After all, I'm no damsel crying over a lost shoe. I am not a sweet songbird who cooks and cleans for 7 little men with a smile. I'm a hotheaded, passionate, sensitive, at times pain in the ass kind of girl. Not that I don't love a good slow dance or the smell of freshly baked cookies. It's just in my fairytale the 7 little men do the cooking while I'm at work and we salsa instead of waltz. I digress. Part of being in my "big girl relationship" with Chris has taught me lots about the age old adage "for better or worse." I used to date people, bottle up my frustrations and then finally reach a breaking point which usually ended in some explosive phone conversation and break up. But now I'm trying to take a new approach. Allowing myself to be frustrated, talking about things instead of exploding five weeks after the fact and working through the hard times. And I would say, given the roller coaster ride of this last year, Chris and I have done a stellar job with our "sticktoitiveness." We laugh and fight and talk, but we never give up on what we have and that is the part of my fairytale that I love. I am learning that my dream man may get more excited about a basketball game than an art exhibit but that he also gives the best head rubs when I can't fall asleep. He may not have ridden in on a white horse, but he does hilarious impersonations. And though neither of us are Emeril, we have mastered the art of mac n cheese together. :) And really, who wouldn't take a head rub, good laugh, and some home cooking over all the rest of that stuff?? I think movies and books give us the building blocks for what love looks like but it's up to us to make it our own. And even though we still get horribly frustrated with each other about how slow he packs or how the dishes I wash inevitably need to be rewashed, there is still a whole lot of mismatched, unexplainble, butterfly-inducing love. And I mean, don't be jealous, but here's a great example of this man I found :
May you all find this sort of hilarious love that can puzzle, humor, and make you smile all at once. Lots of love from the girl from New England/the Midwest/soon to be Southwest.

Lots of Love From An Irish Girl

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! I stumbled upon a pretty funny "You Know You're Irish When" site online and thought I would share a few that are particularly true:

1) You will never play professional basketball.

2) You swear very well.

3) You have at least one relative that is a fireman or a cop. You also have at least one aunt or uncle that is a nun or a priest.

4) You think you sing very well.

5) You have no idea how to make a long story short.

6)You spent a good portion of your childhood kneeling in prayer.

7) You are strangely poetic after a few beers.

8) Many of your sisters or cousins are named Mary, Catherine, or Eileen.

9) You're not nearly as funny as you think you are... but what you lack in talent, you make up for in frequency.

10) You have Irish Alzheimer's. You forget everything but the grudges!



And also... for all you boys dying to kiss an Irish girl today... remember a few things:

We are charming, fiercely loyal, and loving. We are also fiery, passionate, and at times, impulsive. Our passion will lead us to be incredibly caring and attentive significant others but may also lead to cursing and the occasional fit of hysteria when we're mad. We are witty and nurturing. We can DO IT OURSELVES- but don't confuse that for us not noticing chivalry. We are stubborn and like to be right, BUT we also love our family and friends more than anything else and nothing gets in the way of that love. So choose wisely. If you fall in love with an Irish girl, two thoughts will ALWAYS bounce around in your mind- 1) I am sooo lucky and 2) What the hell have I gotten myself into?





Wishing you a rainbow

For sunlight after showers-

Miles and miles of Irish smiles

For golden happy hours-

Shamrocks at your doorway

For luck and laughter too,

And a host of friends that never ends

Each day your whole life through!



HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Good Food and Cute Animals

First things first... we've decided to try to make one recipe each week from the cookbook I got for Christmas. Last night was homemade hummus (California Pizza Kitchen recipe). It was SOO good! Coupled with a yummy shrimp scampi-type dish and warm pita bread, it was by far better than eating at a restaurant again (too much eating out lately... eek).

Also, in the midst of studying for my AP midterm and nannying the munchkins yesterday, I decided to take a few breaks and look at sweet, cuddly animals online. I happened to find two I really loved: the teacup pig and the Yorkie Poo. Chris and I have come to an agreement on the Yorkie Poo but NOT so much the teacup pig. I ask you, though: what is so different about a tiny, non-shedding pig running around or a tiny, non-shedding dog? Both are quite sweet and loveable, right? How about you decide?

Coincidence?

http://www.longdistanceloving.net/2010/12/safe-travels.html

I can't even deal. Please look at what I found this morning while poking around online. This girl and I are living parallel lives and all to be with a boy named Chris.

Logical V. Emotional. Round 1.

Happy Tuesday!
Survived microbiology this morning... even with comments from classmates like, "What is 0 degrees celsius in English?" and seeing the girl next to me literally fall asleep sitting up.
Now back home, shoveling in lunch and hoping to fit in some exercise before I bust out of the only jeans I own. Awesome.
On a more positive note, I am so proud of my sister Kristen for signing up for the
Tri-for-a-Cure! It's an incredible cause that I know my whole family really believes in and she'd definitely be grateful for any donations. Check out her site at: http://T5K2011.kintera.org/kbuck
Ooooo and loved one of Gretchen Rubin's recent "Happiness Project" posts: http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2011/02/my-first-splendid-truth-is-to-tackle-happiness-you-must-think-about-feeling-good-feeling-bad-and-feeling-right-in-an-atm.html
(If I could rename this hyperlink, I totally would. Apologies). In summary, always set your sights on the happiness you can anticipate for various reasons in your life. Don't lose sight of the great moments of the present, but if you are feeling down, remember that there is almost always a light at the end of the tunnel. And scatter fun things to look forward to along the way!
Guess I'm thinking about this a lot given the current situation for me and Chris with school and the job. You know, the ever looming possibility of going back to a year and a half of long distance after already making it through one year of long distance and then being able to enjoy seeing each other every day for the past seven months. Nothing is set and stone but given that neither of us wants to make a poor choice that we'll regret later on, it looks like we both need to do what we need to do to make the most out of our careers and schooling. So hilariously, the girl who moved to the midwest for the boy might be alone in the midwest without the boy. Wrap your brain around that one.
No but seriously... I'm really doing my best to try a new strategy where I focus on the fact that a lot of hard work has been put into this whole nursing school mayhem and I am certainly not willing to give up on it now. Likewise, he has worked hard to get where he is and deserves to be happy too.
And I mean, it's not like a deployment right? Plenty of couples go through this all the time and make it just fine. I hope we get to join the ranks of those strong people :) Of course, the emotional side of my brain and the rational side are both duking it out like never before because I am beyond terrified of all of this... which is silly, given I have been independent and single for most of my adult life and know how to function just fine, right? Think logically, Mariah. Logically!
A few questions to ponder (and I would welcome any feedback):
1) Has anyone gone from being apart to being together to being back apart? And if so, is there a happy ending?
2) Has anyone had to live 100% off of loans post college without the support of a working significant other/spouse or parent? Is it relatively easy to be approved without a co-signer at 25?
3) Would this be worth it to anyone out there? Would anyone else put their dreams before their significant other for a brief amount of time in the hopes that it would set you up for a brighter, happier, more secure future?
I would love to hear your thoughts.
Much love,
"Wearing my big girl pants in the midwest." XO