Señor, me has mirado a los ojos,
sonriendo has dicho mi nombre.
En la arena he dejado mi barca:
junto a Ti buscaré otro mar.
(Pescador de Hombres)
I've been meaning to update for a while but haven't had the chance. With the spring semester starting, things have managed to get very busy very fast but I can't complain! It was an interesting start to say the least but I'm incredibly happy to say that I'm making some big changes in my life and that I'm more excited than I can adequately express about what's in store for me in the future.
My classes this semester are absolutely wonderful, let me tell you. We just completed our first full week of classes and I am incredibly pleased with my course selections this spring. Typically, since I'm a double major in English and Spanish Language/Literature, I balance my course load with two classes for each major. This semester, however, I'm taking three Spanish classes and one English seminar so the dynamic is entirely different. My Spanish classes are amazing... I'm taking a modern Spanish literature survey course, a course on la Ciudad de México and a writing intensive literature course themed "Selva, fronteras y dioses antiguos." My instructors are fantastic and clearly very enthusiastic about the subjects they teach. Although the amount of reading I have to do has certainly increased, it's been surprisingly enjoyable to explore the body of Spanish literature and I look forward to continuing my studies in the next the year and a half and well on into graduate school.
Besides that, I've continued my involvement in my pet project, El Club de Español, and my editor position in the Berkeley Fiction Review. What's even more exciting though is that this semester, I'm facilitating my very own course through the English department! My friend Rachel and I are offering a two-unit course devoted to the NBC Thursday lineup (The Office, Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock). We had our first class this last Tuesday and it was so much fun! It's so refreshing to know there are other TV enthusiasts out there just like me and that I now have a forum in which I can discuss some of my favorite shows on a regular basis. I look forward to the talks we're going to have this semester and if all goes well, I plan to teach it again in the fall.
On a more personal level though, I've decided to step back and really evaluate some things in my life... It's been a long-time coming but it needed to be done. I stumbled across a quote today that sums things up perfectly: "You can't start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading the last one." The truth is I've held on quite tightly to several situations and relationships that in reality are not good at all for me and have left me with more self-destructive tendencies than I care to admit. Fortunately, all is not lost and I have the opportunity in letting go to allow the Lord, in my patience, to give me something even better than what has come and gone. I made a much over-due trip to Confession this weekend and I'm beginning to see that I have so much control over the progression of my life and my own happiness. A good friend of mine recently told me, "Even if it hurts, people come into our lives for one reason or another. We touch the lives of each other and then we learn the hard lessons with people that are not so nice to us." I've spent enough time letting myself be held back by one thing or another and I look forward to seeing how God's plan unfolds for me. In the meantime, I'm enjoying my time here at Berkeley, my classes, my friends, and the time I'm able to spend with my family at home when school permits.
A lovely hymn from Mass this morning ties things together quite nicely:
"All will be well, all will be well, all manner of things will be well!"
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