Lost in Translation

Recently, I have discovered that what I love most in this world is translation. Whether it's from the past to the present, English to Spanish, or even me to you, I love the power of words. It's like a slot machine of possibilities and if you get the same three items in a row, you hit the jackpot. Most people probably agree that writing is like a slot machine, just pull and pray that it comes out coherent. But for me, it's not so random. If I pull on the lever in a certain pattern, then I can get the prize I want. With an infinite number of combinations, I can reach a wide range of people and personalities, and that's the greatest prize in the world.

I suppose on some subconscious level I've always known that I was fascinated with language (I am after all, an English and Spanish double major). But I was never able to say why I chose those degrees, especially after my desk was piled a mile high with books and essays and short stories and poems in not one but two languages. Options for my future were no help either: teacher, years of graduate school to eventually become a teacher, or holed-up writer of boring manuals working with boring people forever. As you can see, I wasn't exactly thrilled with my prospects, but by then it was too late to change my degree, and there really wasn't any option I wanted to switch to anyway. I enjoyed seeing the world through another set of eyes, so I stayed.

Then this new show caught my attention. It's about a team of geniuses who work together to solve national dilemmas. Even though they're some of the smartest people in the world, they have difficulty trying to fit into society, and thus, they have a sort of interpreter. I love that. She takes the world, and morphs it into a form that they can understand, and she takes the musings and adventures of geniuses, and molds them into something that normal people understand. It's pure magic. That's what I want to do. Help people make sense of their world by re-framing it in a way that makes sense to them.

Lessons from Jane Austen

Listen up all you Jane Austen fans! Well, actually this is directed at mostly young, single women who view themselves as Elizabeth Bennet or Emma Woodhouse and are waiting for their love story to be written. But basically after watching both versions of Pride and Prejudice tonight, I wanted to share with the world some of the lessons that I've learned form Jane Austen.

1. Balls are enormously fun. Whether we are at Netherfield or in the town or Hartfield, this ball is going to be the talk of the town! That is probably why I keep thinking that college get downs are going to be fun, when they rarely are. 
2. The most important news comes by the post: good, bad, ugly. Everyone wants you to know the news as fast as possible. The only difference is that now all news is filtered through the Facebook post. So if there's something super important going on, I always know it'll posted within 5 minutes of its happening. 
3. Do not get mixed up in other people's business because you think you know what is best for them. Like Mr. Darcy and Emma, when you meddle in other people's business, it often gets all messed up and you spend the second half of the book trying to fix what you did in the first half. So just chill. Advice is okay, but let's not go overboard here. 
4. Do not settle for the first suitor that comes your way. You don't want to settle for the boring and ridiculous Mr. Collinses or the pathologically flirty Mr. Churchills. You need to wait for Fitzwilliam or George. It may take them a minute or so to realize that they're in love with you (and you with them), but they are definitely worth the wait.

Obviously there are more, but these are the ones that I can think of at the moment. Cheers!

Hell week

So basically, I'm running on little sleep, and I just wanted to throw a little stream-of-consciousness into the world. This is what happened when I loosed my fingers:



Have you ever been done? Like just done with everything so that you could stop and breathe for a minute? But then you realize that you're not really done and that life keeps moving forward really really fast and your not sure but someone must have hit the fast forward button when you clearly said pause and now you're out of breath and you're kind of dizzy and then you remember that school ISN'T over yet and that you actually have an ENTIRE WEEK left of FINALS because for whatever reason someone thought it would be fun to torture all the students by forcing them to remember details from the first day of class that was honestly a blur because you were so excited to be back at school and see all your friends, wait, you were excited to be back at school? No, that must have been someone else because you are ready to be in a real home with a bedroom, living room, AND a kitchen with someone that you've lived with your whole life who has to love you because they're related to you and because they truly understand your awesomeness and don't mistake it for simply being weird like everyone else seems to because your family is weirder than you and you will always have that to make yourself feel better and not school or finals because they are terrible inventions designed to suck the very life out of you until you're so beat down that you enter the real world without any hopes or expectations of snow days or work being cancelled and then all you can say is this is what hell week looks like and thank God it's almost over.

So yeah, it's been that kind of day.