old lessons

Found this in my five-pound notebook from last semester - since it still sounds pretty good three months after the fact, :) I thought I'd put it up here.

This semester, I have learned...

how to write a literary paper. Really fast.

that violence is useful.

that you cite your own work when talking about yourself.

how to contextualize, destabilize, and analyze someone else's work.

that I am not really that good at Spanish.

that we are not nearly so advanced as we think, that there is still a great deal of ugliness and use in the world. That Roosevelt participated. That wars still rage.

that I am a pretty good writer of prose. That I could be published, even.

just how comfortable I am.

how good it feels two hours out of my comfort zone.

that there are still good people in the world, and they love me. And they want me to talk about myself.

that I desperately need my family.

that one can spend a fortune at Starbucks.

to love linguistics.

to love Moody.

to be content. Almost. :)

that pity is not equivalent to love, and rarely has any part in it.

that people will not hate you because you say no.

that everyone doesn't have to love you.

that I could do so much more.