Saturday, January 14, 2006

breathless

I think I said in my last entry that I was enjoying the “slightly slower pace” of interim. A fair enough assessment after just three days, I guess, but this week has been anything but slow. Grammar mornings, lectures at lunchtime, badminton after that. Two hours to catch my breath and dinner, and then off to work for a bit. Grammar studying in the evenings, nights, and (only a few times) the early mornings. (Every college student should have conversations about participial phrases at one in the morning, don’t you think?)

So the pace feels a bit extreme compared to years past, though it’s my own doing, signing up for that extra class in there. (Oh, and I didn’t mention: I’m working on a manuscript-editing workshop/correspondence course for my upcoming internship. This is done in my “free time.”)

But—and this may sound cheesy, though it’s true—I really enjoy everything I’m doing. Grammar has been tricky and hilarious and fun. I know it’s vital for all the editing I hope to do after graduation, so it’s clearly worthwhile as well. I’m glad my roommate’s in there, though. It’s nice to have moral support when you’re knee-deep in gerunds.

With such a tight schedule, I’ve only made it to the January Series twice. This past Friday, Lauren Winner spoke. I really enjoyed hearing her thoughts about sexuality, chastity, and the Church. I’m hoping to the series more often next week—I’m especially looking forward to hearing Paul Rusesabagina, James Doyle, and Eugene Peterson.

So interim is halfway through, and I should be able to keep this crazy pace for the next week and a half. The funny thing? I wish I could be doing even more. There are at least three other English interim classes that I’d love to be in: the ones on the Inklings, Tolkien’s Middle Earth, and Frederick Buechner. Sigh. And I’d like to mess around in my apartment a bit more. Last January, I was experimenting with pie recipes and with crocheting. I’d love to be cooking more this interim, and knitting… while reading up on Lewis, Tolkien, and Buechner, and diagramming sentences, and learning about drop shots…

What do you do when you have too many good options?—jl

Posted by Jenn Langefeld on 01/14 at 07:12 PM
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