Saturday, March 31, 2007

Reasons I heart Spring Break...


Rodin sculptures at the Stanford Art Gallery


Meggie Poo


Random Pictures


Fun times with Katie


The beach, even when it's foggy :)

Thursday, March 29, 2007

A new revelation...

One of my favorite movies of all time is Office Space. There's this one scene I love where the main character, Peter, decides that he's done. One of my favorite quotations from the movie is when Peter says, "I did nothing today, and it was all I dreamed it could be."

I have this theory that in life we all experience revelations of the same sort as Peter's. Granted, the revelations we encounter are normally followed by some sort of action instead of inaction, but you get the idea. A couple of nights ago I had a revelation of the same sort as Peter's. I decided that after I get my Master's degree, I am DONE. Done with school, done with term papers, done with fighting so darned hard for something I'm not sure that I even want.

Now don't get me wrong, I know that I enjoy school much more than the average Joe. I love the feeling of accomplishment I get when I stumble across an "aha!" moment that leads me to viewing the world in a completely different way. I love teaching people things and learning things for myself. I love school so much that until a couple of nights ago, I was ready to give up another FOUR YEARS of my life to higher education. But I guess that's the amazing thing about a revelation: it causes you to change your point of view. In my case, I changed the way I think about school.

You see, I initially thought that I wanted a law degree. However, I've come to realize that if all I want to do is help people, I don't need a law degree to alert people that "Yes! Andrea is indeed qualified to help people because she has a J.D." I also went through a period of time thinking that I might want a doctoral degree, but then came to the very rude realization that if I do indeed want to HELP people, a PhD is probably not the way to go. I would effectively be shutting myself off from the "real world" (as we grad students like to call it) and sealing myself into an early tomb labeled "academia." Sounds dramatic, right? Well, I think it's supposed to be dramatic. Let's think about it this way: if every person that got a Master's degree went on to a PhD program, what would be the point? The system would become incestuous, only creating more professors. Nobody would really do anything. Change would never occur.

Now I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with being a professor. I'm just saying that it takes all kinds of people to make the world go 'round, and I think that I'm one of those other people; you know, the kind of people who decide to say "screw the system" and decide to get their hands dirty actually doing things. Helping people. Taking all those lovely theories and putting them to WORK. And that's what I want to do. Make the theories work. See what can happen when I take the ideas I've learned during my long tenure in school and see what happens when I try to do practical things with them.

Perhaps it sounds a bit idealistic, but I figure that the world probably needs a few idealists here and there. Perhaps it will be a long, hard road, but maybe I can create some HOPE. Spread a little LOVE around. That's all I want in this world.

So I've devised a little plan with which I can start the process of doing something with my life instead of sitting back and expecting school to take me there. Here is the plan:
1) This summer, I'll take a little road trip across the southern half of the United States. I'll take pictures, meet people, write a memoir of sorts. At the same time, I'll be scoping out areas I'd possibly like to live in, community colleges I could see myself working for, and churches that I could see myself contributing to.
2) This next school year, I will be DEDICATED and finish my freaking degree! I will get out of my master's program by the end of next year, thesis and all. I will not be one of those people who hangs around in school forever, never really finishing, never letting go.
3) I'll also apply for the Teach for America program. They work with high schools across the country to help kids who are socioeconomically disadvantaged. Plus, if I work for them I can get some of my student loan debt forgiven.
http://www.teachforamerica.org/
4) I'm going to start checking out different relief organizations. I'm specifically leaning toward Food For the Hungry, a Christian organization that focuses on filling physical needs instead of evangelizing. People get to search their hearts and ask their own questions rather than having the answers forced on them.
http://www.fh.org/

I think this sounds like a pretty good start. I'm exicted to see what the rest of my life will look like with the lens of this new revelation firmly placed over the eyes of my worldview. So what do you think? Are there any areas of your life that you've begun to look at differently? How has it changed your approach to life?

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

The big move and the drama that it caused

I wrote this little essay-like thing about a month after I moved to Sacramento. Thought it was kind of fun :)


Moving to a new city is never easy. Even for the seasoned relocation pro (which I am not), there seems to be a grueling period of readjustment. It’s as if the body has to align itself with the rhythm of the new place and the brain has to remind itself over and over, “this is home.” It is during this time that one's sense of self is most strenuously tested, and the opportunity to discover what you are really made of presents itself.
This is the experience I have encountered in my recent move from the humdrum, small town “SLO” life of San Luis Obispo to the more bustling metropolis of Sacramento. The sense of anonymity in a city this size is almost stifling to a rural girl like me. In this move I feel as though I have gone from a place where everybody knows my name to a town where every face is chronically forgettable. In an attempt to make my own mug more memorable, I have gone through a period of identifying myself with that which seemed the least “Sacramento” to me: my small-town roots. I referred to my rural hometown experiences at every opportunity (yes, I was a 4-H’er for 11 years), said “y’all” a bit more than normal and hummed Garth Brooks incessantly. Labeling myself as the “country girl” seemed to provide a level of security, a niche of peace and safety within a maelstrom of change. However, as I adjust to life in this new place I begin to realize that my small town roots constitute only a miniscule part of who I really am. And while comforting for a time, relying on this form of identity is like desperately clinging to my underwear for warmth in the midst of a whirling blizzard.
So what is the answer? Where does my identity lie? Who am I, really? There are several things I can point out: I am a grad student, teacher, debate coach, friend, sister, daughter, niece, great-granddaughter, movie-watcher, singer, writer, crochet-er, and a plethora of other things I don’t have space to mention. But does this really constitute who I am? Or is there something more? Tonight at dinner, my friend Theresa and I decided to look for a church to attend Sunday morning. The ensuing online search made me think of the friends I left back home and the life I had built for myself there, which included a network of people who shared the same faith as me and, more importantly, a space in which I could take time to worship God freely. I then realized that I have made no such space here. I have relied on the possibility of going home this weekend or the next in order to get my “Jesus fix.” I realized that I have neglected my spiritual self because I moved in order to cultivate my academic self. At that insight, I began to feel a little more grounded and a little less scared. And although I won’t say that going to church will be a cure-all, I do believe that making this space for God in my new life is the first and most important step toward discovering my true identity in all its complex parts (although I don’t think I’ll give up “y’all” just yet).

Debate + Oklahoma = craziness

Two words: CEDA Nationals.
That's where I have been for the past six days. All the stress, strain and seriousness of an entire year's worth of debate work come together in one fantastically long weekend of grueling competition. There can only be one winner, and it definitely wasn't us.

Nationals this year was in Norman, Oklahoma, home of the University of Oklahoma (O.U. to those who know better). Oklahomans seem to be a bit fanatic about O.U. They label everything with the O.U. logo, from t-shirts to sun catchers, debate timers and water bottles. That's right. This weekend, I got my fill of H2OK Sooner water.

Additionally, I had the enjoyable opportunity of staying at the Sooner Legends Inn, complete with an O.U.-worthy crimson and cream color scheme and a biography of a famous Sooner football player in every room. It was so overwhelming and amazing that I seem to have completely forgotten the name of the football player in my room....I'm sure I'll remember it someday.

Favorite memories from my visit to Oklahoma:
- the visit to Van's Pig Stand for lip-smackin' good barbeque,
- relaxing in the student union in an oversized leather chair with free wifi and coffee,
- singing "Friends in Low Places" during karaoke at the Sooner Legends with a debate friend from San Francisco,
-judging USC versus US Military Academy (I voted for USC...the Military Academy was advocating plan-plan debate, which didn't really work), and
-getting to spend an entire day in Oklahoma City visiting my four favorite Oklahomans: Emery, Chris, Ezra, and Joel.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a lot of pictures. However, I've heard tell that some of my debate friends did. I can't wait to see photographic evidence of the Oklahoman madness. Our team didn't win (we didn't expect them to), but it was a great learning experience for everyone involved. To help you better understand debate, here is a link to a website that explains all the basics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policy_debate

All in all, the trip to Oklahoma was a blast. Sure, there was disappointment, sleep deprivation and frustration, but in the end I got to hang out with some fabulous people. Until next time, go exercise your brain!

Andrea