Wisdom and Motivation

He speaks my mind...

"I think the most important thing for me is to keep setting new goals. Only then will you have the momentum to keep going. Bring challenges to yourself and work hard to defeat them. When you defeat them, you get the feeling of success," he says. ""It's difficult but that's what sparks your life. For me, that surge of excitement, that surge of challenge, if that didn't occur to me, life wouldn't be as interesting to me as it is."

--Allen Zhang, in today's Toronto Star (Emphasis added)

Status Report.

Still here. Still happy.

Hopelessly devoted to my new academic focus. It is my love and passion.

And it is all-consuming. I'm so busy I can barely breathe. I'm so passionately in love with what I'm doing, and what I'm becoming...I can't get enough.

To anyone I ever liked, loved, or cared about prior to my immersion into academia...

I'm making many new friends in residence and in my program. But something's happening to my prior relationships.

I've contacted all of my friends in the city. People know I'm here. But when it comes to arranging to meet...?

It hasn't happened yet.

I got away with one party earlier this week. But as for the rest of my time, I don't know. Sometimes I think I'm not going to get to see an old familiar face until Christmas. And that's if I'm lucky. :(

So if you're reading this and you used to know me, and I haven't seen you yet...If we don't have the chance to get together within the next eight-and-a-half months...

Miss you. Love you. See you when I'm successful. :P ;)

I know I'm doing the Right Thing

This is my finest hour. This is my Alchemist moment.

You know that book, The Alchemist? There's something about living the way you're supposed to...When you're doing what you're meant to do.

I feel beautiful and happy and free. I look forward to growing. :)

Because I'm so damn happy...

I've come to a decision. My official theme song is "Golden" by Jill Scott. You can find it here. I would love to have her new CD, but Beautifully Human is among my list of wants as opposed to needs.

I came back earlier tonight after a wonderful evening. I was out among friends. We were talking, and laughing...And even singing. :) (Happy Birthday Joanne!!!)

Somehow my soul felt inspired. I never thought I'd feel I had the right to make "Golden" my own. I used to listen to it and say, "I want to know that feeling."

But sooner than I imagined, the time has come. I can't resist sharing the way I feel...

"Golden" expresses a bliss and satisfaction and a love of life that I thought I would never find. Yet somehow, piece by piece, my world is coming together. That, and I adore Jill Scott's bright, bold, lush voice. Her phrasing is exquisite. She does more than sing. She claims every note. In "Golden", she's proud of every word. (The teacher in me hopes to use her work for a unit on poetry and/or listening. ;) )

I'm in a program I love. I have amazing professors and classmates. I live in a great neighborhood, in a city I adore. I love my friends and family, although I miss them to death. And I couldn't have asked for better roommates.

I feel incredibly blessed. :)

If anything bad should happen, at the very least, I will have had...This.

Something intriguing.

Today yet another online quiz creeped me out with its uncanny way of capturing my personality. Consider the one I just took. (Results are posted below.) And remember this one?

I can't deny that I long for love. I believe in it--deeply. Sometimes I even dream about it.

*sigh*

And then there are times when I wish I wasn't a romantic. Longing without having can be difficult.