Day 1

...of my last semester of college. First assignment, for my English senior seminar? Read this article.

I don't think I've ever been a fan of Sherman Alexie. Maybe I thought he was semi-interesting on occasion. Then I read this article. This section in particular stood out to me:

"I think every writer stands in the doorway of their prison. Half in, half out. The very act of storytelling is a return to the prison of what torments us and keeps us captive, and writers are repeat offenders. You go through this whole journey with your prison, revisiting it in your mind. Hopefully, you get to a point when you realize there was beauty in your prison, too. Maybe, when you get to that point, 'I’m on the reservation of my mind' can also be a beautiful thing."

YES. This is exactly what we as writers need to hear. We don't all have an "a-ha" moment for life's big questions. We don't all get a letter and fifty bucks from our favorite poet or author to encourage us in our artistic endeavors. But we all have dreams, and we can get inspired by stories like this. You may think you need that push, a push that huge — you don't. This or that story isn't yours, but you do have a story.

So write it, in any way you can.



Professor Lee: +1
Stereotypically-boring-but-easy-so-you-can-relax Senior Year: 0.

Aldrich Talonding & James Bucong

Just found this today, too good to pass up. One of my favorite worship songs, and these guys are TALENTED. Had to share.

Lyrics:

Here I am before You, falling in love and seeking Your truth
Knowing that Your perfect grace has brought me to this place
Because of You I freely live, my life to You, oh God, I give
So I stand before You, God
I lift my voice cause You set me free

So I shout out Your name, from the rooftops I proclaim
That I am Yours, I am Yours

All the good You've done for me, I lift up my hands for all to see
You're the only one who brings me to my knees
To share this love across the earth, the beauty of Your holy worth
So I kneel before You, God
I lift my hands cause You set me free

So I shout out Your name, from the rooftops I proclaim
That I am Yours, I am Yours
All that I am, I place into Your loving hands
And I am Yours, I am Yours

Here I am, I stand, with arms wide open
To the One, the Son, the Everlasting God

Back in the Blog-o-sphere...

...permanently. In the past I've used blogging primarily as a way to keep in touch with friends and family while traveling overseas, but I guess I'm one of the many who also like to just think out loud via the internet.

And I mean, think about it — how cool is it to be able to see that at least one person in seventeen different countries is reading what you write?

So to the readers, thank you, and to the writers, keep at it. Even if you never get rich and famous (rich), someone cares about what you write. So write.

And to the wanderers who stumble upon blogs accidentally or check one out just for a lark one day, enjoy. The world is at your fingertips, but you never know for how long.

Anyway, I guess the real point of this post is just to officially kick off the start of this blog and my life adventures. I'll be starting on my English thesis (a creative work) here pretty soon and I've already begun research for my Japanese thesis on suicide and its role in the narratives of Japanese literature (written in English), so I'll probably put some of my findings and scraps in here, and I've got the travel bug bad after Japan and Rwanda (possibly the tiniest country in all of Africa), so you'll be hearing about that as well if you care to follow along. You may even get to see a painting or two of mine :)


So that's all for now — I'll catch you on the flipside.

<3 Caitlin

P.S. In the background are all my journals since 6th grade!