here at the end of all things

today i sat in my third level english class and quietly celebrated.  first class of the semester finished.  sixteen page research paper out of my hands, twenty minute presentation out of my mouth.  finished!  this is one of those bittersweet endings - i love to write.  i love to be critiqued.  i love to workshop my writing.  and i'll miss that.  i won't miss that massive group project though.  i am infinitely happy that is done with.

it's all almost over again, and i'm slightly reluctant to let it all go.  one class particularly, i can't seem to let go of.  my advanced family processes class {graduate school prep class} terrified me at first.  the professor calling on people at random, and me sitting there biting my nails hoping something intelligent would come out of my mouth. now i love it.  now i don't wait until he tells me i have to talk or else.  oh how i love those people and their opinions!  it's been my favorite class thus far, i think.  the most challenging, arguably.  the most ambiguous, definitely.  but also the deepest.  we thought in that class, i mean really thought.  beautiful, intelligent conversation and debate.  glorious disagreements and fantastic compromises.  i'll miss that intellectual roller-coaster more than any class before.  not to mention the people - the quirky social science nerds, the girls with the beautiful accents, the ones that challenged my thoughts and became kindred spirits.  i'll miss that professor profoundly, with his unexpected lectures and history tangents, his advice, concern, and real-life down-to-earth expectations.

i can't wait to work with his project in seattle.  it frightens me a little again, to be trusted with a piece of this genius's brain-child.  but i'm giddy nonetheless.

thankful:

1. i'm thankful for the best professor i've ever had.
2. i'm thankful for for the potentially last group paper i'll ever write - finished!
3. i'm thankful for customized cupcakes and chocolate milk to end the best class of the semester.
4. i'm thankful for pasta salad after a starving day, a grandpa with a kind heart, chocolate oats, glen beck.
5. i'm thankful for three hour naps after one crazy day on campus, and a sister to make sure i don't sleep for twenty hours consecutively.