Headed home for the holidays

Katie D.

December 18, 2011 - 1:42 PM

Here I am again, writing from an airport. I'm sitting in the Portland airport (my favorite airport in the world, in fact) and am ready to fly home to Denver for winter break. I've spent the last couple of days with friends in Portland, unwinding from a busy term. There have been internships and essays, classes and teaching, blogging and shopping and working out and events and living in my lovely Eugene apartment. I've spent time with old friends and my CRES cohort members, I've developed new relationships with local agencies and activist communities, and I've established my plans for my post-graduation life (at least for one year). It's been a darn busy term.

This past week has been filled with errands and details to wrap up from my final fall term at the University of Oregon. There have been meetings and debriefings from my Graduate Teaching Fellowship for the fall, including the first stages of planning for Sister Helen Prejean's UO visit in October 2012. I wrapped up my internship with the Eugene Immigration Task Force, and we're looking forward to a big community event in January (more news coming soon). I cleaned my apartment and filed my term papers, did some Christmas planning, and finalized my class schedule for winter term.

It's a relief to have a break.

This has been a monumental term. I went from recovery mode after my difficult summer to a high point of receiving a Mitchell Scholarship. I'm exhausted just from the highs and lows of it all.

I'm taking this opportunity to really reflect on the term, and on what to take with me for the remainder of my time at the UO. I'll be writing my thesis, which has to be a huge priority. If you've been reading me for a couple of years, you've already walked through one thesis with me, and you've read how it can consume the writer's life. The page count grows so slowly, and there's always more research, more writing, more editing to be done. So that has to be a priority, and has to be fostered in a way which makes it a celebration and not a slog. One thing I'm planning for winter term is to get together with several groups of other students working on theses or terminal projects. We can write and encourage each other, as well as presenting ideas and holding each other accountable to deadlines. That is a key point to making this year a success.

Another is that I need to take some classes just for the joy of it. I've signed up for a rock climbing class (after such a long hiatus!) as well as kickboxing. If I can find a good Zumba instructor, I'll be back in that hilarious mode as well. It's important to maintaining my balance.

I also have recently received some affirmation and reinforcement for my creative life. I've taken up some new crafts, which is a good way to turn off the mind and drift into something completely different. But I also was honored with a journalism publication early this term, as well as my photography and poetry submissions to Unbound Magazine (pages 79-81 here: http://www.unboundlit.com/unbound/issue.php?iss=Current%20Issue )

This week as I've been wrapping up loose ends from the term, I've also worked on some new routines to carry me through the year. I've been socializing and spending time at coffee shops with my nose to the proverbial grindstone. I've been doing creative writing alongside my research. I've planned for both workout classes and some exciting internship developments. I've chipped away at the "to do" list for the thesis.

I'm wrapping up the term with this blog, coming at you from PDX, the friendliest airport I've encountered. Time to call last term over with, and take a deep breath before launching into the work that lies ahead.

What's coming will come. And today I feel ready.