Growing Pains

It's difficult to believe that it's been so long since I last posted. The quarter is absolutely flying by. I actually had to register for next quarter's classes last week, which always kind of throws me a little. It's one of those interesting little quirks associated with the quarter system: you register for the next term's classes just as you're starting midterms, and then as soon as you finish midterms you have to start studying for finals. I think it's more shocking this quarter than it has been in the past, too, because it's starting to hit me that this is my last year at the UW. Only two more quarters to go, and then I have to *gasp* start thinking about my future. So every study session I go to, every conversation I have with a friend, starts to take on the quality of being one conversation closer to the last conversation I will have with them. With as terrible as I am with goodbyes, this could turn out to be a very long year.

But by the same token, I'm definitely ready to get on with my life. College, while it's a great place to find yourself, starts to feel like a rut all its own after a while. Preparations loom for the trip to Taiwan, which means more scholarship applications and school applications and - in the grand Chinese tradition - miles and miles of proverbial and not-so-proverbial red tape. Am I crazy for applying to study Chinese literature in a Chinese-speaking country? Um, yes. But no one ever said I was compltely sane.....