A Very Lucky Girl

To be frank, this is weird. I haven't taken this long of a hiatus from A Very Lucky Girl since..well, ever. And I don't really remember how to write like A Very Lucky Girl. I turned in my final paper to dropbox less than an hour ago and here I am, still with phrases of Paradise Lost  swirling in my head. The last time I wrote here it was almost three or four full months ago. A lot can change in three months. They've been good changes and hard changes and just plain changes. Where do I start? How do I begin? Well, there's this boy...whom I love and adore and admire with all of my being. I did not plan for this and Tanner's presence was most unexpected, but strangely welcome. I smile to think of how far we have come in only three months and what a precious blessing he is in my life. It all started with our two friends, Megan and Marshall. I know I've mentioned Megan plenty of times in A Very Lucky Girl, but Marshall is her boyfriend, who also happens to be o...

A twelve year old said these ominous words to me yesterday. We were playing a game that involved guessing movie titles based on clues and I was sucking at it. Why? Because they were all "the latest" Disney movies. I think the last Disney movie I saw before Frozen was rewatching Mulan. I'm not up to date on Brave or How to Train Your Dragon or any of the other hot commodities in the elementary school world. And so this twelve year old mocked my knowledge with laughter and a declaration of "you don't know these because they didn't exist back in your day !" Excuse me?  Repetez s'il vous plait? When did I become old enough to have "back in your day"'s thrown at me!?  The same twelve year old went on to talk about how one of his teachers at school is 24 (aka 2 years my senior) and married. And then asked when I was getting married. I told him boys are icky, present company excluded. And then I spent my Saturday night in a hot tub with ...

I have been so much better in the past about keeping a regular blog schedule. At least two posts a week, like clockwork.  But here I am, on the brink of a new semester, and it has been almost a month since I last wrote for A Very Lucky Girl.  I haven't stopped writing. I still journal regularly. I have written and rewritten essays for the Fulbright application. I write emails daily. I still find myself when I arrange words into coherent sentences, art in strings of black and white. I started to blog about my Florida trip and began constructing a back to school post in my head.  But neither one seemed to grow me as a writer. I don't see the point of A Very Lucky Girl if I'm not challenging myself.  Someone asked me yesterday if I ever wrote stories. Fiction. I had to say no. I've never even touched the genre with my own words. I devour it when I read, it's my favorite type of book, aside from the travel memoir, which is rapidly escalating in my word-hungry eyes....

Have you ever had a day where your entire life just made sense and you knew you were right where you were supposed to be? That was Tuesday for me. I thought I would take the time to share a bit about my terribly thrilling 8 AM class every morning this summer. Thankfully, it's a short class and the final exam is on July 3rd, just in time for me to celebrate my freedom with the rest of America on July 4th. But until then I'm stuck in Dale Hall Room 107 every weekday from 8-10:10 AM. Those last ten minutes are especially excruciating. The class is overwhelmingly male, most likely due to the subject matter: The Ancient Art of War. Our textbook is actually called "With Arrow, Sword, and Spear." Riveting, right? The majority of the points are received for attendance and group participation and I find myself asking the other 4 members of the my group (again, all male) to explain the battles over and over to me. I'm hoping they continue to find it endearing/not ann...

The first order of business in Prague was again a restroom to change clothes and an ATM to withdraw Czech Koruna. At this point we were going on two nights with no real sleep and approximately 48 hours without a shower. Thank god for deodorant and toothpaste, amiright? We found a little chain bakery that we later noticed all over the city called Paneria and immediately dubbed it the Czech version of Panera. We took advantage of their outlets and Wifi as we planned to attack Prague.  We learned from our Brazilian friends that they were heading to Prague the same day as us and they mentioned the hostel they were staying at. We were in the market for a place to sleep so we decided to Czech it out after we explored. No, I never stopped making Czech puns.  After consulting the paper map and the Google map we decided we had some semblance of direction and traipsed off under the weight of our god-awful packs.  The first thing we found was an open market filled with trin...

I know that it looks like I don't do any schoolwork at all. Even my friends here in the exchange program scoff at the four hours of class I attended each week. But today was the culmination of weeks of preparation for a Shakespeare performance. I chose a Shakespeare module in Dundee because I thought it would be really awesome to learn Shakespeare in depth near the country of his birth. One thing I've come away with is that I don't believe Shakespeare was written to be said in an American accent. I felt so inferior among the proper accents in my tutorial! A requirement of the course instructed each tutorial group (there were three) to choose a scene from any of the plays we read, perfect it over the course of the term, and perform it on March 26. My group was on the smaller side and had only eight people in it. We finally settled on an abridged version of the final scene in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." The scene has loads of characters in it so we had to get c...

This week is the halfway point in my academic semester here at the University of Dundee in Scotland. Before I left America I received many well-wishes and one in particular sticks out to me at this stage in my journey. My friend, Tracy, told me in a Christmas card: "You will start seeing the world through new eyes." She should know, she spent a fall semester during her college years studying in Vienna, Austria. I FaceTimed her when I packed for my adventure and she urged me to NOT bring my entire tshirt collection. I admit, she was right. I really didn't NEED two pairs of Nike shorts.  I wanted to take a post to reflect on what I've learned about the world and about myself through my experiences at Dundee.  This semester is spurring me on to graduate as soon as humanly possible. December 2014 looks to be the magic date, which means...I've been a senior without realizing it.  Beyond an academic future, my weeks abroad have reaffirmed what I thought I already kne...

I'm well into the second step of preparing to study abroad, which in my case is saving, saving, saving. I met with a study abroad advisor a few weeks ago to discuss destination options and we came up with three different ideas. Reading, England. Dundee, Scotland. Hertfordshire, England. I'm already in love with the idea and opportunities that Dundee has to offer. I still need to wade through the process of selecting which courses I could take that would match what OU offers for my major. The worst case scenario would be to come back from a life-changing journey, only to discover that my credits won't transfer. I am determined to graduate in 4 years, after all.  That is one daunting sheet of financial math. And unfortunately, I did all of my math right for once. So I have a question for all of those that have traveled and studied abroad. Is this an accurate assessment of cost? What would cut back on expenditures? Obviously, keeping outside travel to a minimum would s...

Last Thursday morning I was accosted by a startling headline in the Oklahoma Daily: "Armed man apprehended by OUPD." Talk about disturbing! I rescrolled through my OU email account and checked my phone for any missed OUAlerts. Nada.  According to the Oklahoma Daily , "University police failed to inform students of a man, who said he was armed, on campus last week." From what I understood from the paper, an expelled student, Naasik Ferdous, threatened to murder OU women's soccer goalie, Kelsey Devonshire, for reasons unexplained. Devonshire requested and received extra protection when the threat was realized, but although the almost assailant was spotted "in the Oklahoma Memorial Union on the morning of October 17th", no other students were notified of the potential danger.  OUPD explained their apparent negligence in not using any alert protocol because "the emergeny system to notify students via test there was a potentially armed man on campu...

"I'm a freshmen-lover...in an extremely appropriate way" said I as I lounged across the couch in Savannah's triangular office on Monday. I couldn't contain my excitement about the relationships I get to build with new students. Hi guyz, my name is Taylor and I'm obsessed with this year's freshmen class at OU. I love being able to be a mentor of sorts: to my Gateway class, my freshmen friends, and strangers that I meet at the Caf or the Union. I remember my dad telling me, "the best way to have a conversation is to ask someone about themselves. People love to talk about themselves, it's human nature." Paul never ceases to be right. Except for, of course, when he's wrong. I applied to be a TA for the next two semesters and I am absolutely adoring every second of it so far. My class is so great, especially considering that it's at 8:30 AM on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Thankfully, it's full of morning people (or people that are rea...

bathroom pics Jew party, what? College is the single best thing to have ever happened to me. I am SO blessed with parents that work hard to make an excellent education accessible for me. I wish college was a full-time job, I love everything about it. I love my classes, I love meeting new people everyday, and I especially love this environment of striving for success.  Febreeze wars gingerbread house party Hey, mom and dad, this is my official thank-you. It means a lot that you would invest so much in my dreams.  Horned Frog dance parties roommates boomer sooner football birthdays Remember wanting high school to fly by? My opinion of college is vastly different. I want these next 3 years to slow down and take their time.  general silliness sisters <> I used to hate being a part of the class of 2015 instead of my original status in the graduating class of 2014, but I wouldn't be ready to leave here in 2 years. I need t...

First day of classes has been conquered. And I'm utterly exhausted. I fell into bed around 10:30 pm last night and awoke before my alarm at 7:00 am. Since I was awake I decided to get a jump-start on my workout and headed to the Huff for my daily treadmill/abs/squats routine. I was school-ready by 9:00 and didn't know what to do with my time until Megan met me at Cate Main to catch up on life.  From there I headed to French, arriving 24 minutes early for old times' sake (I used to get there early in hopes of seeing Tyler). Tyler and I placed bets on whether Natasha would make it to class. We were allowed 6 unexcused absences in that class and Natasha had a grand total of 17 at the end of last semester. She made it with about 30 seconds to spare. Final verdict on French class: The teacher seems relaxed and not hardcore about speaking the language all the time. And I have the most attractive partner for speaking activities in the room ;) Next up: Health and Exercise Scie...

As a college student, home has taken on a new meaning. I can refer to home and mean two entirely different geological points on a map: Norman and Oklahoma City. I feel like a potted plant in a Uhaul. It can be placed anywhere, but it doesn't have a permanent home. It can migrate from the living room to the kitchen, from Raleigh to Beaumont, but is constantly packing up its leaves and dirt for the next transfer. I can't wait for the time that I can be thoroughly planted somewhere (preferably not Oklahoma, like we already discussed) and put down worry-free roots. The college home is an independent place. But with my home at OU comes different struggles; constant interaction, constant academic mindset, and less rest. My family's home in Quail Creek has the drawback of consistent (though minimal) supervision, but the plus sides of free laundry, free food, a room of my own, and access to a car.  My family makes that home something wonderful to travel to. I can't wait t...

To answer the question posed in the title: My viewpoint on life. You either succeed or fail. You smoke or you don't. You cheat or you choose integrity. I had an interview to have a chance to become a part of Integrity Council for OU's campus a few days ago. I belonged to something similar in high school at St. David's and I loved it. Being a writer, I take plagiarism very seriously and it bothers me when people don't take the time to do their own work. As cliche as it sounds, these lazy beings ultimately cheat themselves out of an education.  All this to say, I think I blew the interview. On my application I made it clear that I perceive the world in black and white and they questioned me about this, saying that some situations that came to the council were a more grey and asked how I could contribute to those with my harsh view. I think my answer was wrong; I proclaimed that I would see the situation in right or wrong first, and then try to incorporate the extenuat...

I'm currently taking my first major class, Critical Reading and Writing, and we have written one paper so far. English professors are notorious for lag-time on returning graded assignments so I'm still biting my nails over here as I wait for the final verdict on my first piece of prose for Dr. Anderson.  On Tuesday our class had a very interesting and rousing discussion about the general education requirements at OU. So rousing, in fact, that we spent a solid 45 minutes expositing the pros and cons (of course, this was also a clever ruse to delay our inevitable discourse about Flannery O'Connor's tragic tales like Good Country People  and A Good Man is Hard to Find ).  Nevertheless, several of my classmates had good points. OU requires several hours of history and government, two sciences (natural and physical, one with a lab and one without), two semesters of English, and 3 hours of math, regardless of your declared major. Most of us in the CRW class agreed that as...