Where I’m At | Midwestern At Heart

Writing

Here’s an interesting topic that has been on my brain today… Writing.

Seriously, who thinks about writing? Well, obviously I do. But why? Writing has kind of a negative connotation. I think some of that stems to school when you are required to write papers. Papers on things you don’t want to write about. Required to write X number of words on a topic you may or may not know anything about or care about. But writing is a unique quality.

It is a way to convey a message. When you read a piece of writing, it can make or break what you are trying to say. Heck, think about texts. They are a form of writing. It’s a form of communication. You type something one way and someone takes it another and BAM! you have a fight on your hands. That’s the interesting thing about writing. Some people spend years honing in on that talent and ability. The ability to speak and write. If you read a lot of job descriptions, they want you to be able to communicate effectively and efficiently and that includes having the ability to write.

In a job, you’ll write memos, emails, meeting minutes, notes, etc. In those, you have to be able to convey a message to multiple groups of people. And two words about that are Quickly and Effectively. (more…)

11 Quotes to Remember About Life

The other night as I was lying awake at 2:30am I was thinking about a lot of things… mainly life. I got tired of thinking about life so I jumped on Facebook. Isn’t it funny how sometimes when you least likely expect it you see just what you need?

Life is an interesting thing. I wake up some mornings and feel like I should be 20 because I feel like in life I’m where a 20 year old is, yet in a little over a month I’ll be 34 (does someone want to please verify my math….). What does that sentence mean? Well obviously, I don’t know my age but I know my birthday. Okay okay, seriously, that sentence means, I have an almost three year old. A lot of my friends had that in their early 20’s. In my early 20’s I wasn’t responsible enough. I knew that then. There was no question in my mind of that.

When I got out of college I had a pretty new degree that said I was qualified to teach high school students 9-12. I was 22 years old. If I were to teach a senior in high school, I was looking at 17 and 18 year olds. That made me 4-5 years older than they were. Would they have listened to me? Probably not. I didn’t get a job right out of college as an agriculture teacher. I spent that first year out of college as a substitute teacher and a part time server. Wow did I learn a lot that year, including how to do proofs (you know those things in Geometry that I failed in high school… No, I didn’t fail Geometry, just the proofs unit….).

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Happy Birthday

Today is my 33rd birthday. 33, wow. I can remember when I thought someone in their 30’s was old. I guess now I’m old? Remind me of this statement when I’m 40, please. Once upon a time I did a 101 in 1001 list… 101 items to complete in 1001 days. I’m not really willing to try that again right now. I told my dad yesterday morning that I heard your 30’s were supposed to be better than your 20’s. He told me, “You are what you make it. It is all state of mind.”

I believe goals help you achieve things. So I decided to set 33 goals for my 33rd year. Help keep me on track, please!
Still to do In Progress Accomplished + the date

Pay off my car.
Break Abug’s mare, Little Pi, to ride
Use my gift certificate to train with a local horse trainer.
Lose 33 pounds. (roughly at 10-15 in this goal….)
Ride Blonde Barbie more.
Sell my house.
Look into either building or buying another house. (more…)

Once a Gorilla

As they say, Once a Gorilla, Always a Gorilla.

I hate to say it but I’ve taken more pride in being a gorilla these last couple of semesters than I did when I first started out on this journey. Sad, now it’s over. There were a few things I wanted to do that I didn’t, such as attending a football game (while a student). But I guess we all have regrets now and then.

I would say my biggest regret right now, not being more excited on Graduation day. Why you ask? Well I was waiting on results for comps and I was afraid that I didn’t pass which meant I didn’t technically graduate. I felt like a fraud and a phony. I also wondered in the back of my head if because I felt that way and was afraid I’d regret the feelings, if I wouldn’t actually pass comps. I did on both accounts… I also think I owe my family an apology because while they were extremely excited… my guilt took over and I kept saying, “I’m not real sure I graduated…”

That morning we got to the school early. I wanted to take a photo shoot, kind of like “senior” photos. It didn’t turn out exactly like I would have liked. Oh well… I still got some good photos. I wasn’t taking them, hubby was and I couldn’t convey what I wanted. Sad how sometimes you see it in your head but can’t get it in words.