Jasper

Went down to the farm today, 70 degrees, windy and beautiful.

Christmas in Indy

Some pictures I took from our trip downtown tonight.

Snowman

Dad and Emma were building a snowman and playing in the snow and I took a few pictures before my camera battery died. I played with a couple different croppings of similar photos, I wasn't sure which I liked better.

It's late

I was very eager to get out of Midland in the summer and I wasn't excited to go back last Friday and now I'm back in East Lansing and very happy. Ironically Angie is going to Midland this Friday right after I go back myself for a reunion of my high school journalism staff. I loved those kids a lot but I think I've moved on from my high school paper and it's going to be strange to see everyone again, because college changes people. I can't imagine what it will be like four years from now, but even a semester away from Midland can offer a world of change. The four days I spent at home ended up being a lot nicer than I expected but seeing people that still live in Midland and are just very naive as a result of living at their parents houses in a small white conservative town and going to community college made me remember why I was so desperate to get away from home. At the same time going back and going around town on my own I did remember that I appreciate it, it was a good place to grow up but the people will get to you after a while.

Tonight was a good night, watching Almost Famous which is always good no matter how many times you watch it and shooting hockey (we lost the game which apparently has become a pattern) and just being back in East Lansing. I've gotten really attached to here and I'm glad I'll be here for the next four or five or however many years it takes me to graduate. I love the people here. It's snowing a lot right now and I'm sitting in Angie's living room thinking about going to sleep but thinking about a lot of other things that will keep me from falling asleep for a while. My first semester at college went well and I love it here but there's a lot of things I need to do differently and I think it just takes time to learn about myself and living on my own and what my priorities need to be. I did some stupid things but a good friend told me at the beginning of the year to have no regrets and I'm not going to regret things, just learn from them.

Home

Walking

I've yet to find a better way to clear my head and properly sort my priorities than just going for a walk. People walk with a purpose too often. They walk to go somewhere or to get exercise but walking without caring where you're going can be really healing. I think I'm finally ready to go home, I need to to salvage old friendships that I neglected and let time heal some new ones. I watched the greatest movie I've ever seen today. The Go Getter. I highly recommend it.

Last day

I'm getting ready to go shopping with Krystle for the gala tonight, preparing myself for all the craziness that surely will go on, and am completely stunned that this semester is actually over. Even though I've been called crazy by a significant amount of people for starting as a first semester freshman, I can't imagine my college experience going any other way, and I'm glad I won't have to kiss the wall for another four or five years. I'm happy to say the State News takes over my entire life, and it's going to be incredibly weird to not be walking into work every day for a month. It's going to be more weird not to see everyone I'm used to seeing daily.

It's even weirder to know that I've been in college for a whole semester. These few months went really, really fast, and I'm worried the next four years are going to fly by before I know what to do with myself. I'm going home in a week, which will be the strangest part of this whole end of the semester experience, but at least I'll get to see Mag every day. My life at home and my life here are entirely different, so I'm interested to what it's going to be like going back and settling back into my high school life for a month. Sure it will be nice to see people, but part of me just wants to move on and leave it behind. I guess I should stop trying to grow up so fast, because if things keep moving as quickly as they have been, they'll be gone before I have a chance to appreciate them. Cheesy, but true I suppose.

Natalie is just waking up and we're playing Meet Virginia and being silly and I'm also pretty bummed that just now that we're getting along wonderfully we're leaving each other for a month. It took this long to get settled in and now I'm leaving, and I'm sad about it. I guess spring semester will just be that much better.

Snow and cats

Took the picture of the cats today while shooting a lady painting watercolors- she was lovely and her cats sat with her while she painted and it was really wonderful. The lady with the hood was waiting for the bus in the snow yesterday, I just thought it was pretty.