My freshman year of college has passed; the summer has ended; my sophomore year is close to halfway over.
Here are some of the things that have happened:
I was chosen to be the model for a two photoshoot series. One was about androgyny; the other was a nude photoshoot focusing on body image.
I got the Nexplanon birth control implant in January. Veeeery nice.
I finished the school year with a 3.7 GPA and was nominated by my writing teacher for the biggest writing scholarship in the school; I won a scholarship to attend the Laughing Heart Literary Festival & Writing Conference, which was a three-day event over the summer in Hot Springs, NC. There were a lot of big authors and poets from the Appalachian area. I was chosen to perform a poem I'd written at the closing event on the last day. It was wonderful!
When I was in Savannah over spring break, I got a dotwork band tattoo around my upper arm.
I worked over the summer at Southern Pine & RK Construction, a reclaimed antique lumber and custom design/construction place.
I was mostly in the metal shop using the drill press, angle grinder, band saw, metal grinding wheel, die grinder, welder, wire brush wheel, etc. Pretty easy to take off a finger with most of those. It's also pretty weird to watch hot sparks shower your boots and jeans and gloves and bare arms.
Aside from the metal shop, I was also straining & sanding wood, pulling nails, helping out with the building & installation of pieces in the new Perry Lane Hotel downtown, putting together a work studio, and doing most of the detailing for the antique motorcycle we'd refurbished for a client.
Jake came to visit for a week over the summer, which was wonderful. (He was here for Summer Solstice!) Went to the beach, to feed alligators, to the Wildlife Sanctuary, etc.
We've been together for around a year and two months now; our one year anniversary was fantastic - we went to a nice restaurant and got ice cream and just walked around as the sun set and gave each other their present. (and then fantastic sex).
It's such a wonderful experience to have someone you love who doesn't do things like play mind games, or hack your snapchat account when they accidentally send a message to you instead of the other person they were talking to about you, or starting to date someone else while still in a relationship with you, or ask your friend how you've been doing...two years after you've broken up. So mature.
It's nice to know that Jake don't expect me to be perfect and automatically agree with him - which we certainly don't. But if one of us has a problem or concern, open communication/being honest is important to both of us (especially since we half live together).
I've been taking kickboxing for a while now; one of my proudest moments was when my instructor warned me that hitting anyone with my uppercut would probably break their jaw.
I've also been spending several hours at a time in the little river in the Botanical Gardens looking for river glass, bits of pottery, and interesting rocks. I've had to start being very picky about what I take back with me, as I'm running out of room for it (I have three big jars full, plus several old prescription bottles full of the smallest pieces. SO beautiful in the sunlight!).
Bambi came to visit over fall break! We went shopping, ate pancakes, watched a lot of Total Drama Island, and just got to spend time together - something that I miss being able to do whenever we want.
I was a student volunteer for the Tibetan Monks' sand mandala while they were on campus, and having the last shift of the day, I was the one to follow the special steps for sweeping together and collecting the huge (incredible) mandala created by the students.
My suitemates are nice enough; we're able to keep things clean and well-stocked. It's pretty hilarious when your suitemate tells you about some weird guy they met on Tindr and had been talking for a while before he does a total 180 and says that his two year relationship just became exclusive - and then they show you a picture to see if you know him. Absolutely dying laughing together was a good way to get to know each other! [At least until you find out that your suitemate went on to become really good friends anyways - while also actively choosing to hide it from you so as to spare your feelings [though such a thing is not anyone else's decision to make], until you find out via hearing them loudly talking on the phone until you are shaking too badly to write and end up having a panic attack when you find out that said suitemate talks about you with said old toxic relationship that fucked you up for a long time (and clearly seeing that toxic actions from said person are still the same even after all this time) and you suddenly find yourself actually frightened].
Life continues to happen. The earth turns and time moves forward, whether we want it to or not. We're falling through space, clinging to the skin of this tiny world. We rise and rise and rise again. The best we can do is open our eyes and hold on to each other until the end of the line.
