re-educating self

i'm going back to school.

that's right. manana, mi clase de espanol empezar!
(anyone know the key command to make that little n-yay over the 'n'. i have a feeling i'll be needing it.)

i haven't been in school, well, since i was in school. nor have i wanted to go back until now. for me, school was never about learning. it was about getting good grades. which i did very well. i walked away from all my schooling with a stellar transcript and a head full of rapidly fading, memorized solely for exams, information.

(nice, huh? i can feel my mom cringing as she reads this. so glad i saved for your education, darling.)

one day shortly after graduation i knew i had to be a writer. ever since i've worked random jobs that allowed for lots of writing time. jobs, none of which, asked to see those transcipts. i don't think about this much, but i do kick myself a little now.

i wish i could nudge my younger self and say, take the hard classes. the ones with great professors that make you think, and rarely award anything higher than a 'C.'

take a language. nevermind, that the classes are four days a week and ultra hard to get A's in. language is freedom. plus some day you'll meet a cute boy who you'd love to understand more than 50% of the time. oops, sorry, i mean. language is freedom. period.

triple major! studio art, english and marine biology because i could be writing novels and swimming with dolphins right now.

jointly, i wish i had said: study something useful. sorry, english and studio art, you were fabulous, but man, why didn't i consider environmental/agricultural/marine sciences? i still probably would have been a writer, but i'd also have had a day job to grow in, be intrigued by (do jobs like that exist?), and, shock of shocks, even get benefits in.

ooh one more. i wish i had said, study abroad. never again will you have the opportunity to travel with such mindless ease.

now i'm here. on the cusp of truly, mediocrely understanding and speaking spanish. i'm going back to school and i'm going to be the annoying person in the class who can't keep their mouth shut. who questions everything. who is actually enjoying the whole learning enrichment thing.

basically, i'm going to be exactly the person i hated in undergrad. y no puedo esperar!