Mrrrr?

This past week - well, more than a week, actually - has felt like a month. I keep flashing back to the beginning of the semester and thinking about how different it's been. Then, I hated that it felt like a week felt like a month. Now - well, I wish it had been longer, at least at some points. There are particular days that I wouldn't have minded stretching out over a good long time.

Time is a curious thing: It seems like so long ago that I started here at MBC - a short skinny redhead with a serious penchant for skinny geeks and a desperate need for knowledge of any sort. I was little and scared and younger than all of my friends. My hair was unfashionably short and my face was still a little round and my nose was like a little button covered in freckles. I wrote my very first essay when I got here - I had never needed to write one before English 102. I failed my first class - math, of course. I discovered, to my own astonishment, that I really was pretty good at that singing thing, if a little deficient where the technicalites were concerned.

Now, I'm still short, skinny, and once again a redhead. I still have that fairly serious penchant for skinny geeks and I still feel that thirst for knowledge. I'm still little and scared. But other things have changed. My hair has grown and my face is thin, because I don't have time to eat anymore, and I've finally grown into my nose. I'm getting better at writing good essays and can whip out a 10-page paper in two hours or less. I've come to care a little bit less about failing a class. I'm still good at that singing thing - worlds better than I was when I got here and one of the most advanced students at MBC. Maybe even the most advanced, now that KA is graduating. And I'm older than a lot of my friends now. They look up to me as someone who knows more than they do, who can fix things, who can take care of them.

I've discovered that I'm better at taking care of other people than I am at taking care of myself. I don't sleep enough, nor do I eat enough (in quantity or in frequency), nor do I stop working when I need to. Then again, I don't always work when I need to, so I suppose it evens out in the end.

I've been considering grad school again recently. It has become clear to me recently that I have a real gift for singing and acting. I'll never sing on Broadway, or do any show singing of that sort. I simply do not have that sort of voice. I'm a lyric soprano. I have an opera voice. I always will. So I've been giving some thought towards applying for opera programs once I've gotten some work experience under my belt. Grad school can't be all bad and a masters' degree looks darn good on a resume.