Back

Brother Sam and I drove back to CH//Carrboro  yesterday. I got back and immediately tore apart my room, and made a bigger mess of everything than before. Hours later, a new room emerged and I collapsed in bed.

I fell asleep early and woke up feeling like a lot of things were possible this morning. Today has already been filled entirely with being BACK. Back to the mess, the fun, the long walks in the rain, the printing, the physical therapy and doctors appointments, the long chats with advisers, and the trying to get organized.

I took this photo of the taco truck beside my house last semester. I like this place and like taking photos with my film camera(s).

It feels good to be back. Even in the rain, the mud, and the quiet.

I have no idea what this season will bring. I feel that half of me has never been more ready and the other half is protesting . . .  everything.

“Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book, and remembering – because you can’t take it in all at once.” – Audrey Hepburn

Happy Monday. Stay warm everyone!

Levels

Each week of this semester has seemed to go by faster than the week before. Currently the only things that occupies my dreams are a good night’s sleep and a fresh salad. Those are the two things I’m craving the most in life. . . And exercise. My body needs to move, but thanks to this lovely foot problem I cannot move as I would like to! Tired of the dr. appointments and the constant referrals, but I know my time will come again and I can be free from it all!

Today was the first Saturday in a long time I was up at 6. Today = two jobs back to back, trying to squeeze a good deal of hw in there, and most of all, making life plans and connections.

I set a new goal for myself at the start of the semester and it was this –

Learn something NEW every weekend. 

So far, I’ve tried to learn poker, how to skip stones, etc . . . and this weekend, I’m going to try and learn how to nap. One of the great and constant struggles I’ve faced for 21 years.

This week will be one of perseverance, little sleep, and (*hopefully some) crazy productivity. I’m certain there will be moments. . . but it’s okay.

Websites will be made, papers will be finished, and midterms will be taken! Have a happy Saturday!

+ Watch. This video about stress.

[Photo: What sleep looked like this summer in Varanasi//Grace Farson]

*Year in review

Another *academic year DONE.

I just turned in my final paper, and it feels so good.

This year has been one adventure, but the greatest successes of all have been the moments when I feel I belong. For the first time in two big years, I feel that I finally found a place and felt good here. The feeling doesn’t last forever, but it happens periodically and it’s always welcomed.

There is still no TIME now that it’s all over, but life is good (*minus the constant cold, rainy weather).

Tomorrow we leave for Pennsylvania to rest, read, and recover from the madness of a long school year! For some of us, this is our last chance to prepare for moving, graduating, or traveling and it’s going to be epic. It’s the first time we’re all together and don’t have to pack tents, sleeping bags, and unnecessarily warm clothes.

About to go to my last day of work until August and then. . .more packing. . .

But, for NOW, it’s time to focus on getting back HERE!

“I wanted a perfect ending. Now I’ve learned, the hard way, that some poems don’t rhyme, and some stories don’t have a clear beginning, middle, and end. Life is about not knowing, having to change, taking the moment and making the best of it, without knowing what’s going to happen next.
Delicious Ambiguity.” – Gilda Radner

THANKS EVERYONE FOR MAKING THIS SEASON OF LIFE WHAT IT HAS BEEN.

I’m forever grateful.

[Photos: Scanned Polaroids taken over the course of this school year//Grace Farson]

KATIE | PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER

Katie is graduating on Sunday and then she is moving to Amsterdam!

Plus, she’s one incredibly photogenic person!

[Photos: Katie portraits//Grace Farson]

That day we set a world record

Tuesday was a big day here in Chapel Hill.

608 people helped set a world record (*and I can officially mark off my biggest goal for the year!). UNC is very proud to have set the world record for the longest spoon train!

Thanks David and all the dear friends for doing this.

Together a lot is possible.

[Photos: A record-breaking day//Grace Farson]

On losing control

Losing control looks and feels something like this I think.

Today is just that day. That day of the week//month// or year that feels a little different, just a bit harder, a little more overwhelming than the ones close to it. . .

Good things to come, I know that full well,  but for now, I am set on making lists of my priorities. . . and doing. . .

On this day, I am thankful for these things:

+ Sleeping in a little later than intended

+ An avocado and coffee breakfast

+ Documentary films about bees, bbq, and big Southern eating from the Southern Foodways Alliance

+ A paying job [*too many jobs at the moment really. . .]

+ Papers and projects and the stuff I complain about now but will one day be glad I did. . .

“What are we going to do differently when we get up tomorrow?” – Gloria Steinem

[Photo: Delhi, India//Grace Farson]

Relentless Usurpation of Temporal Linearity

Back to it all.

First day of classes = something like this. . .

Woke up at 7:47 for my 8 a.m. // made it there + only 5 mins late // pjs = leggins + velvet shirt worn all day // new classes and faces all around// hugs // promises to see each other in the new semester// classes added//classes dropped//plans// people darting in and out of buildings trying to find classes// goodbyes//new connections made . . .

I had been continuing to do the same thing
while expecting different results.

On most days the children learned how
to do something. Time passed around us

as something approaching a figure eight
might move in order to let all else move

or be moved by our large numbers of feelings
exponentially on high alert once we let them register.

It passed us around. It passed around us like a river
around a boulder.

Music consisted of light & light came on time.
It was impossible for us not to anthropomorphize everything.

And yes, watching ice skaters, the kind called figure skaters,
the ones who aren’t doing anything other than tracking again &

again some figure of infinity marked out on ice for them,
this never failed to quiet us down & take us some place else.

– Dara Wier, 2012

[Photos: Holga, early spring, last year//Grace Farson]