Eyes on Chicago

First of all, let me say that based on the overwhelming response I got from my post yesterday I can only assume that you are all happy that I am back blogging regularly … or that you enjoy these rare glimpses into my brain.  Either way – I’m totally blown away by your responses and I’ll definitely keep both of them up!

On the docket for the day is something I’ve had a lot of people asking me about in my personal circles – Chicago Marathon.  Yes, it still hasn’t quite sunk in that I’m going to start hardcore training for A MARATHON in just a few short weeks, but I’ve definitely been trying to get back into the swing of logging a few miles everyday.  It still feels pretty weird to say, “I’m training for Chicago.”  There’s so much time between now and October and most people think I’m insane for trying.

If you’re interested in following my progress, calling me crazy, and scoffing at how slow my average pace is right now (I know, I know – you don’t have to tell me!) or how I should be doing more miles right now (I’m trying to build up slowly so I don’t absolutely kill my shins!), you can visit my profile on DailyMile.com.

In a way I guess this whole marathon training thing is related to my post from yesterday – this is my journey, only mine.  I’ve dealt with some issues related to running, mainly motivational problems, and put on a few pounds after graduating.  Running without my girls is hard, and so is training after a full day of work.  But I’m hoping that diving back in for this marathon will push me even harder back to my running ways.

Another motivating factor for me is my fast-approaching 25th birthday.  At the end of July I will officially be a quarter of a century old.  Not only is that terrifying in itself, it is just one year shy of my older brother’s age when he passed away.  Losing him at 26 just made me think about the time that I have and how I’ve got to make the most of it.  After realizing that soon I would surpass his age and, in effect, become the oldest child (even though he will always be my big brother) I vowed (Yes, vowed.  Because that makes it seem way more badass.) that I would finish a marathon before I was 26 as a reminder of my own personal drive and to reassure myself that it is never too late to check something off of that giant to-do list that is life.

That being said – so far my official training doesn’t start until the second week of June, but I’m already trying to figure out how I’m going to squeeze my 20 mile run in before C’s cousin’s wedding in August.  Or how I’m going to get to Chicago in October.  Or which half-marathon I want to try to run in order to bump up my corral.  Mostly I get excited, though, especially when I read articles like this one or talk to my friend AK about it (I swear we chat about it almost on a daily basis.  She totally rocked it last year and I’m hoping I can just kind of live in her shadow).  I’m also so excited that my parents said they would come and watch me run.  That means a lot to me too!

So basically right now I’m building a base of miles so that my legs don’t totally die once I start pumping up the mileage.  Again – definitely check out my profile on DailyMile and start commenting like crazy if you see that I haven’t been logging or running!

XOXO

A

The Thief of Joy

I want to take a chance and write about something very personal that happened to me a few months ago.  I’m not sure what kind of a reaction this will bring, but I feel it might be therapeutic for me to revisit this particular experience.

I don’t know about you, but there are some people in my life, present or past, that have always made me feel inadequate.  Simply by being around them I immediately feel like my education isn’t good enough, my fashion sense is out of whack, my relationships are all meaningless, or that I don’t have my life as together as they do.  Of course this is all totally unfounded because none of those things are true.  (Well, maybe the fashion thing, but that’s an entirely different story.)  Ever since I can remember these particular people have been able to cut me down in a matter of seconds and it seems like I can’t recover.

Recently I spent some time with a person like this and after only five minutes of talking (and having a fairly decent conversation) my inner voice was in a downward spiral and I just couldn’t recover.  This caused a major fight with myself and brought a negative tone to the entire evening.  I found myself not being able to enjoy the company or even give this person the chance to change my mind.  Things got out of hand and nearly everyone was left uncomfortable and angry.

After a few hours away from this person, I started to feel ashamed of how terribly I had reacted to the situation.  I had reverted back to my insecure high school ways, lashed out, and gotten angry when I should have just excused myself and taken a moment to remind myself of quite possibly the greatest quote for situations like this:

Comparison is the thief of joy.

-Theodore Roosevelt

I think one of the greatest lessons that anyone can learn is simply – life is not a race.  I constantly have to remind myself not to compare my life to others – no one is ahead or behind, people just have different journeys.  Some people my age might be married, have kids, have a successful career, or be living their own adventure by traveling the world.  Just because I feel behind or even ahead, does not mean that one of us is better off.  I’m guilty of both sides of this issue - I’ve considered myself worlds ahead of some people, while I’m still catching up to others – but  it’s time I realized that in the end it’s not about what you have or what you’ve done , it’s about being happy.

And I have come to realize that I am incredibly happy.  So now when I encounter these people  who seem to tear me down, read a Facebook post that makes me question where I am in my journey, I’m going to think about my amazing and supportive family, the opportunities that getting my Master’s will open up for me, my incredible relationship with C, and the great hope and potential that I see in the future.

Are you guilty of comparing your journey to others?  How do you handle the feelings that come after?

XOXO

A

Travel Tuesday: Second Home for the Summer

Where were these photos taken?

All of these photos might look familiar if you’ve been following me on Twitter or Instagram (You should totally follow me!  Just click on the links!) you’re probably getting sick of seeing these pictures.  These photos are all taken on Notre Dame’s absolutely gorgeous campus on a particularly beautiful day while I was on my walk home.  Yes, I get to walk by all of these on my walk to and from work.  The office I work out of for Fighting Irish Digital Media is right in the Joyce Center which is right across from the football stadium just down the hall from the basketball arena.  The top photo is Notre Dame Stadium where I hope I’ll be able to catch a game from the booth this coming season (C really hopes so, too!  He’s a huge Notre Dame fan!).  The middle photo is an artsy shot that I took of the iconic Golden Dome on the top of the Main Building, which I’ve heard is gorgeous inside as well.  And the bottom photo is a place that you might recognize (see here!).  Yup, that’s Touchdown Jesus on a much warmer day than the last time I was there.

Who were you with?

Sadly, or not, these photos were taken while I was by myself.  I won’t say it’s nice to be away from C because I do miss him terribly when I’m down in South Bend, but it is nice to be doing something so good for my career on my own.

Why was this moment so important to capture?

These moments were important to capture for purely selfish reasons.  The weather was gorgeous and I wanted to show my family and friends the amazing place that I get to spend the summer.  What I’m doing is some pretty amazing stuff, and I have these photos to remind me of the incredible opportunity that I found in South Bend.

XOXO

A

A (Summer) Tale of Two Cities

It sure is toasty out there today!  That can only mean that summer has begun and obviously I have needed some serious time to adjust.  While for most people summer is a time of relaxing, going to concerts, and hanging out with friends and family, this summer I’ll be lucky if I can make it to one concert this summer and I might go insane with two graduations, two open houses, three weddings, and a family vacation plus working two jobs in two different cities.

Yes, this summer I am incredibly busy.  I am splitting my time between  Ypsilanti, Michigan and South Bend, Indiana.  In Michigan I have a fabulous part-time job processing donations for a media archive just outside of Detroit, while in South Bend I have an even more fabulous internship working with the Fighting Irish Digital Media department at Notre Dame.  Both of these experiences are incredible and I am so lucky to get to do both of them, despite the fact that they are three hours apart.

Luckily my supervisors in both locations are incredibly flexible and supportive of me pursuing both opportunities, so managing my time between the two has been relatively easy so far.  Granted this is only my second week of splitting, but I think it will be pretty easy.  I work the beginning of the week in Detroit, then pack up and head down to South Bend typically on Tuesday nights and finish the week down there.  Then I’ve got the whole weekend to be with C, visit family, and do whatever I like.  C has been so wonderful throughout the whole planning process, agreeing to let me use the car for the majority of the summer and taking care of the housework when I’m not around.

The one thing that might get to me, since I’ll be doing this weekly routine well into August, is the lost time.  I’ve got six hours of driving every single week  that is, honestly, possibly the most boring stretch of interstate ever created.  I’m going to look into some audiobooks, though I’ve always had a hard time retaining anything that I hear.  If I want to understand a complex story, I have to actually read it.  I have been listening to some of my favorite podcasts (Game of Owns, Bill Burr’s Monday Morning Podcast, and Alohomora), but those are only posted so often and sometimes I need a break from my super nerd-dom.

Have you ever split time between two cities?  Got any recommendations for ways to pass the time?  I’d love to hear them in the comments section below!

XOXO

A

Roses and Thorns

This week was it – my last week of anything having to do with my first year as a Master’s student.  I had a few exams, some papers, and one final big presentation fair where I had to given an elevator pitch about a project I’ve been working on all semester.  It’s pretty hard to cram three months of research into a one minute speech, but somehow I managed and everything went really well.

After class (and the pseudo-mandatory class photo) one of my good friends – and my first friend at SI – invited me out for a beer.  Which turned into two beers.  Which quickly turned into a five hour lovely conversation about basically every topic on the planet.  At one point, my friend CK asked me, “So what are your roses and what are your thorns?”

At first I had no idea what she meant, but then she explained that (OBVIOUSLY) roses are the good things that have happened and the thorns are the lessons that you’ve learned or the difficult parts you have had to struggle through to get to the good parts.

I was a little taken aback at first.  Yes, sure I’ve been complaining a bunch about the work and the constant stream of readings and projects and the annoying housework I still have to do, but are there actually things that I have learned this semester?

Yes.

Absolutely yes.

Reflecting more on the idea, I have come to realize that I have come a long way from where I was just one year ago.

For roses I can count the amazing people I’ve met in my classes, the incredible professors I have had, and the discovery of what I want to do when I finally decide to grow up.  I’ve had some incredible experiences through this first year at SI including being taught by one of the founders of the Web, traveling to New York to work for an amazing non-profit, and making connections with some great people across the country.  This year hasn’t been without any thorns, however.  The greatest thorn of all is the constant struggle to balance home-life and school-life.  Never before have I really had to worry about bills while I’m trying to write a paper.  Or try to schedule group meetings around the full sink of dishes I have waiting at home.  I still haven’t quite gotten the hang of it, but I’ve got at least one more year to figure it out and I’m going to try my best.

CK really brought to my attention just how much I have changed over the past year, even though I didn’t think I had any more changing left to do.  It’s bizarre how on a daily basis things never seem to be different, but once you look back on who you were, you realized just how much has changed.  I’m excited to start my summer and go into my second (and final!) year at SI to see how much I’ll change.  Until then, it’s just one day at a time.

XOXO

A

Yikes.

Wow.  It has been a while, friends.

I’ve taken a brief hiatus from basically everything fun in life simply because … well, I needed to.  The end of the semester is always crazy and so much has happened in the past two weeks, both in my life and in the news that I couldn’t quite bear it.  I’m not apologizing for the break, only trying to offer a small explanation.  But now that the semester is winding down, I will certainly have more time to write and share and laugh with all of you!  That’s not to say that I won’t be busy this summer – I’m probably going to be even busier than I was this semester!  And here’s why:

If anyone out there is a Notre Dame fan, me wearing this golden helmet is probably slightly offensive and makes you incredibly jealous, but it sure looks good on me!  That’s right, folks.  I have the amazing chance to intern at Notre Dame University with Fighting Irish Digital Media!  I’m so excited to explore more about the university, the field of sports media management, and find out where I can fit in the picture.  It’s going to be a busy summer, as I’ll be shuttling back and forth between South Bend and Ann Arbor, since I found a fantastic part-time opportunity in the Detroit area.  It will be rough and will definitely put a lot of miles on my darling PT Cruiser, but it’s going to be totally worth it.

What are you doing this summer?

XOXO

A

HAIL

Today is the day, guys!  If you’ve been following the NCAA tournament then you know that Michigan made it to the Championship game.  Tip off is tonight around 9:30 and I’m so excited to watch.  It’s a pretty new experience for me – to be actually going to the school that is playing for a Championship title.  C and I are planning on (hopefully!) grabbing a beer and watching the game downtown with hundreds of other Wolverine fans after I get out of my evening class.

I’ve been trying to think of small ways to show school spirit (Go Blue!) without going all out like I did in my undergraduate ways.  Here’s some of my favorites!

Hail Yes Card from Rock Paper Scissors, $6

I seriously can not get enough of the “Hail” merchandise I see all over Ann Arbor.  The “Hail” is a reference to the University of Michigan fight song, Hail to the Victors, though most fans will simply say “Hail” to one another.  One of my favorite moments from one of the first UMich games I went to was during the National Anthem (which was already epic because an eagle flew around inside the stadium and a stealth bomber did a fly-over).  During the line “What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming”, every single person in the entire stadium raised up their hand into a fist.  It was seriously one of the most chilling and cool things I’ve ever seen.  Either way, I would love to hang this on my wall.

Vintage Hail Shirt from M Den, $24.95

Vintage Michigan Tank from American Eagle, $19.95

I’m on the lookout for some killer shirts.  I love the vintage style of both of these, and also – how cute is that Wolverine?!

 

Hail Leggings from Moe’s Sport Shops, $39.95

I saw some girls rocking these leggings at a football game during the fall and thought they were some of the coolest leggings I had ever seen!  What a cute way to support your team and still stay cool.

Who are you rooting for tonight?

Go Blue!

XOXO

A