Checking in
Quo sumus nunc? Quo vadimus?

In a few months, I'll have two masters degrees and yet never have held a salaried full-time job in my field (unless you count the funded graduate study I begin next year). I feel like I have a clear and consistent sense of direction and a reliable momentum in that direction, but I also recognize that there are many possible endpoints to this trajectory, and many of those could be considered success; also, that the trajectory may alter course at any point, though as each point in time passes, the range of possible outcomes narrows.

I have a sinking feeling that the 90s are about to become "retro" and that 90s music is about to appear on oldies stations. I feel like I will die of shock when that happens, but I know somehow life will go on. I still don't understand how people born in 1990 could be graduating high school now. Does not compute.

I have a single white hair that keeps coming back, but it is on my chin. If everything goes according to plan, I will soon not have any more hairs on my chin. Until after menopause.

In terms of upper body strength, muscle tone, flexibility and aerobic stamina I am probably in the best shape I have been in my entire life, but I still need to lose 10 lbs to get back to my best adult weight.

I think there is One Love, and all the loves we experience are reflections of it. Don't push me on the ontology of that, but there is a sense in which I think it is absolutely true, to the extent that I think anything is absolutely true.

Ahem.

If you had been thinking of marking this event with a gift to me, but didn't know what, may I propose the following (and if you hadn't been thinking of it, don't start, especially if you are spending money to attend the graduation next month):

• Headphones. Noise-blocking would be ideal, but even just a replacement of the ones I have would be very nice. They have lost sound quality and the insulation has torn in one spot, exposing the wires, which might fray.

• Mix CDs are always nice. There is a lot of great music in the world I haven't heard yet. I know what some of what I am looking forward to hearing is, but I'm sure there is a lot I don't even know about.

• Renew membership to Cal Alumni Association. I am about to lose "recent grad" status, so the rates are going up. A lifetime membership would be good, too, but those are even more expensive. Sort of.
  

• I am going to buy myself the following:
• A body butter from The Body Shop
• A Gifrants CD
  

Labels: time capsule

- posted by k @ 12:12 PM