Yeah, living in a college town the urge to reflect on
your life every four months seems to be required.

I think I've grown a lot professionally. I'm still a great distance from any kind of real career, but I did have a few freelance design and photography gigs that went well - brushed up on the photo editing process quite a bit. Some other opportunities fell apart before they had a chance to happen, but even in those I have learned a good bit about client interaction. My experience working at the museum has been better than I could have hoped for, and is probably exactly what I need at this baby stage - the opportunity to get faster at mundane production tasks, and seeing the whole design process from initial work order to finished product. Skills that will allow me to "follow my every creative whim" later on. Plus, they hired me part time as of Aug 14. Which is a good sign ;) Which, in case you didn't know, is my life's selfish goal - to be in the position to be able to follow my every creative whim ... lol. And don't burst my bubble by reminding me life is not about whim ...

... because I am good at doing that own self. There is this weird circle I've locked myself into. I'm preparing to graduate, so I'm thinking of all the things I want to do and be - But as soon as I try to run forward in that, I am yanked backwards by the restrictions my body is putting on me. This whole nightmare has just reached its one year anniversary. The cycle throws me into such doubt. God seems to have a great deal to say about both the way we live our lives and about suffering, but I am realizing that reading his opinions and experiencing them are very different things. Like going to a 3D movie - without the glasses, you can see what's going on but you're not getting the full effect. Put the glasses on, and the new dimensions add greatly to your understanding and experience. Sometime I feel like all this has been like God handing me a pair of 3D glasses on the subjects that can't be fully understood just by reading. Or, at least that I was being hard headed about.

That I am being hard headed about.

Leah Welch '09 is not going so well. Here are some possible campagn strategies - 1) Begin dressing like a hoochie  2) eHarmony  3) Go clubbing  4) Go to lots of prayer meetings and pray with EXTRA passion  5) Speed dating night at the Holiday Inn  6) Become famous  7) Win the lottery  8) aol! s/w/f  9) Settle. Yeah, I don't that any of these will work. Suggestions welcome.

Classes start tomorrow. Looking ahead, I see my final semester of classes and the official building of my portfolio - I see more responsibility at the museum - less responsibility at the TLC (since I'm officially jumping ship come October) - AFAC - a few trips to see family - hopefully the completion of Physical Therapy? (please Jesus) - and starting the process of finding a job / deciding what the next chapter of life will look like - and who knows what else.

So, yeah. Recap concluded.

I am possibly loving my time so far at the Museum. Full days Mondays and Wednesdays, but the tasks are interesting and testing my knowledge and skills as a designer. The perks of being at a Natural History Museum are nice. First of all, its full of so many of the things that remind me of Florida as my home. There are trails out back I can walk while taking a computer break with boardwalks through wetlands and egrets and dragonflies, sometimes snakes and gators. I've been eating lunch in a Butterfly and Wildflower garden with benches in the shade and all sorts of neat things to photograph. I get into the butterfly exhibit for free with my name tag any time I want. Everyone is nice and knowledgable and likes being there.

On the flip side, some of my work at Santa Fe has been frustrating, but since there is no such thing as "unreasonable people repellant", I will just get over it.

Overall, I think the full time schedule has done me well. For so long I just had to go home and sit still and my brain just couldn't handle it! I'm happier when I'm occupied. I've been holding up ok-ish physically, which I was worried about. Physical Therapy twice a week is challenging, but some cracks are starting to show in the wall of this thing so that give me motivation to keep fighting. Still a long way to go though, with at least another month of PT.

Other good things on the horizon ...  The summer wedding gauntlet will bring love, photography experience, and some much much needed income (I'm poor! lol). Handsome gentlemen will ask me out to coffee and dinner (a girl can dream). Mary has a three ring pool and Jane has a puppy. And finally, I have two coupons for free pints of Blue Bell icecream.



[end]