further up & further in

Yes, I know: back already? But I forgot to mention that I've added another link along the side, a link to The Face of the Other, my CS Lewis professor's blog. If you haven't already, check it out: There's not much about Lewis specifically, but Professor Young's a most interesting fellow and an excellently entertaining writer. I've been to his class for all of two days and already I'm planning the rest of my undergraduate career around the classes he'll teach.

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With Lewis on my mind, then, and a cup of tea to keep me company (Pomegranate Pizazz, no less), I'll take another homework break to allow some thoughts to breathe.

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Our first assignment was to read, in the day between classes, The Screwtape Letters. I didn't think much of it---though I was excited, I've read it a few times before---but once again Lewis read like scripture and I found myself marking even more of the book than before. Each time I read a book I annotate in a different color---and Letters has now become a hodge-podge of black and pink and blue and a smattering of green. It is remarkable how each new reading brings out a new aspect of the book, and that you may never grow tired of words because they are forever changing as you grow. Of course there are always those small passages that, looking back on, you laugh at---how much more you understand now! To open a long-loved book, scribbled in and written over, is to understand the journey of self.

What I found in Letters this time around is a truth so simple and inherent in its being that to see it in print sends thunder to the soul. This time I found my colored pen fixed on the passages of Christ's mercy, and of his pure Love, and of his hope in us. There are too many instances to count, but of all the now-blue sentences, this one has stayed with me the most:

"When He talks of their losing their selves, He only means abandoning the clamour of self-will; once they have done that, He really gives them back all their personality, and boasts (I am afraid, sincerely) that when they are wholly His they will be more themselves than ever."

Simply in typing this in I feel there is no need to expound except to say that, if you really are wondering what to do with daylight, I recommend listening to Brooke Fraser's CS Lewis Song.

rah, rah, rah!

As you now know from the post below, I am sitting at my kitchen table, cozied up into the bay window's nook, telling myself that I can afford to blog because it is only six o'clock and I have all night to finish up my homework. I justify this not only because all my homework is reading, but because today marks the first time that I have been home before five and I therefore have extra hours to tie up loose ends. It is a rather marvelous feeling but altogether fleeting, as the minute I finish up here I'll realise that if I were really responsible I'd finish next week's homework tonight, too. Oh well.

So, school's back in session and the stress has set in nicely---I've already envisioned Finals Week in all its Glory and chances of recovery are slim, but attainable. This semester looks to be one of my biggest challenges yet, though it comes as an exciting challenge and one I am more than ready to get started on. Lucky for me, I was thrown right into it.

These past two days have been spent 10 to 10 on campus, studying and working and all things inbetween. I tackle Italian first thing in the morning (I have forgotten absolutely everything I've ever learned in that respect) and then am off to the Labs for my daily three-to-four hour shifts, and then, depending on the day, either move on to Writing Fellows and CS Lewis, or to Public Speaking. Each road is equally excellent; I have some of the finest teachers here and the best students to share them with. Tomorrow I have my "last new class," Judaism, and then I will have successfully survived the first week of my second year at university. I won't bore you with the details (it's likely you've already heard them), but already it's been quite the learning experience.

Simply being back on this campus is envigorating. You can quite literally feel the energy of thought and progress in its walls, and it is contagious. Yes, it's still completely overwhelming to be one amongst so very many and yes, Feelings of Inadequacy abound, but overall I wouldn't trade it for anything. I am busy, I am happy, I am full of the potential all around me. I love this place, this learning and this growing. It feels like everything is right with the world, that this place can be, to me, one of the many answers to the Eternal Yes. I've been waiting ages to put up my Room With a View header, and now seems the perfect place: Love! Joy! Beauty!

and crown thy good with brotherhood

I'm busy on another post for you, but this small moment can't be passed up:

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There are boys outside my window playing baseball on the Quad, and while I've never been one to fully appreciate just why baseball is Our Nation's sport, there is something so reassuring seeing grown boys be boys---and so American, at that.

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Right---back with more in a few!

beginning of the end

Olivia has left for school and my world is not quite the same.

o.w.i.e.

So, we just got back from a girls' night out at the movies---all Yale girls laughing and sobbing over the (fictitious) Austen love story in Becoming Jane. And, yeah, it was great. Good time had by all---and when we got home, we enjoyed another round of laughs and absurdity tearing apart the plot line and then, later, declaring our (undying) love for the Jonas Brothers. Happy, right? But you know what really topped it all? What really made the cherry on top?

A message from our girls eight thousand miles away, our Eternal Partners in Crime. With pictures.

Only you could make a great day greater. Only you could make us stay up later. Only you could get us taking Photo Booth pictures with stuffed frogs at quarter to midnight.

What more can we say?

Frog on.

keep the faith

I have tried. So hard. To put this off. So far off, in fact, that it just never happens. I gave in to the blog header---the premiere deserved as much---but this, this should never have come about:

The time for a HSM2 review has come.

All guests had arrived, the red and white jelly bellies passed around, the TV tuned to Disney and the countdown begun. As both former and current students of East High (yes, THE East High) filled the room, it's no understatement to say that we were seriously jazzed---and rightfully so. I mean, this is HSM! This is your name in lights! Your time to shine! I was gearing up for elated laughter and The Post to End All Blogs. Sadly (though perharps luckily for you), I can sum it up in all of two words: entirely adequate.

Don't get me wrong---I am a serious fan of this singing sensation---but Troy, really? Did you really have to solo-dance about the golf course in all black and with so much emotion? Did you honestly need a near-Sharpay experience to see that Gabriella was, truly, the music in you? And you might have been better off without the necklace exhange ("T for Troy?"). Still, that's not to say it's all your fault. It's a musical, yes, but the smiles could have been taken down a watt or two

Here's the thing: HSM, for all its kitsch, was somewhat believable in its transitions from script to songburst. The second time around, not so much. I know, I know, it's Disney. But I think, when it comes to HSM3, we should stick to the school. There's only so much you can do with a few sprinklers and a sterling silver T.

the wild, wild west