Day 350: "Don't summarize your year in a sentence."

I could write down my year in conversations. It's amazing to look back at the rhetoric I used at the start of this journey to convince others and myself that gap time would be a "good" idea, and now to reflect on the ways I've actually achieved the somewhat broad goals I'd laid out for myself, some overtly and some obliquely, and some in ways I don't know about yet.

I had a chance to look back (and forward) with James Perla over coffee this morning, as we shared our observations on returning home after any immersive experience (James just returned from 7 weeks spent speaking only Portuguese at the Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy). Apart from our "language reflects life" discussions and the entire two years of our own lives we had to fill one another in on, we also enjoyed a very "productive" talk, with our complete futures now completely planned out:

Ratna will move to Brasil, find some trees, and save them.
James will move to Brasil, find some children, and teach them.

Brasil was clearly a theme of our breakfast, as were music, feminism, comparative literature majors, and doing what one loves. For me, that is starting the day with a good conversation with a good friend.

I arrived back at home with grand plans of dorm shopping and college preparations, but found Mama and Nani instead in the midst of preparation for dinner with Mama's colleague and real estate mentor Lisa tonight.


I embarked on an hour of meditation, a phone call with Wooj, a bit of research for TNC, and a short workout. I then set out to imitate Nani's outfit exactly so we could be twins for the evening.


Dinner with Lisa was lots of fun -- we enjoyed butter chicken, rice, and Nani's comments before Klondike bars and old photo albums.


My nails are navy blue, I have a headache, and I'm off to bed.

--

P.S.  It's terrifying that time is running out. I leave for college in less than a week and there are still so many things to be collected, essays to be written, and people to be seen. I was always quite certain that Gap Day 350 would come and I would chuckle when it did, but it's here now and it's scary.

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