I have no idea why I was so anxious earlier this week. Everything has turned out fine. I’m quite excited to learn this semester. My schedule is fantabulous. I have class everyday but it’s all evenly spaced out so I won’t get too stressed out. I remember first semester of Freshman year, I got Tuesdays and Fridays off but Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays were overloaded with three or four classes each, almost all consecutively, for one, two and three hours. It was horribible. So yeah, I’m really thankful. Besides the ASL-related classes I’m taking, I’m also taking a Modern Bestseller which allows me to read actual books! On the list are:
Misery by Stephen King
Silence of the Lambs by T. Harris
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Weight of Water by Anita Shreve
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Secret Life of Bees by Sue Kidd
And you know what the best part is? I DON’T HAVE TO WRITE ANY PAPERS! And all our tests will be purely objective. I can’t tell you how relieved I am about this. Writing analytical papers (or any papers for that matter) is the death of me!
Even though I’ve only had two days of ASL (with a translator) and one day of Deaf People in Society, I feel like I’m learning a lot already. For instance, there’s a difference between deaf people and Deaf people. The first feel like they are broken and need to be “fixed” while the latter accept themselves and don’t feel the desire to have to hear. Then there’s etiquette like how it’s perfectly fine to walk between two people who are signing and conversing to get somewhere since breaking eye contact in ASL is rude. I mean, obviously the visual is really important, but I just never noticed how much since I have always been able to hear. Oh yeah, “hearing impaired” is offensive too. Dang, there so much I never knew before, and I’m eager to learn more. Next week will be interesting with no more translator…(my professor is Deaf).
It kind of sucks to still have to tell people that I’m undecided, but I feel better about it now after someone told me that it was a good thing. I’m use to people automatically asking me what I’m interested in or whether I have any inkling of what I might want to study and it gets tiring trying to explain myself because I honestly still don’t know, but I’m glad to know that by being undecided I actually have a lot of freedom. It is a bit contradictory to the program here at Northeastern since they want you to decided as soon as possible so you can go on co-op, but having someone tell me that it’s good I’m undecided has really changed my perspective. A lot of times when I tell people I’m undecided I get the impression that they’re thinking “Oh, this girl has no idea what she’s doing and is going nowhere in life,” but then I think, “Does anyone really know what they’re doing?” and feel better because I know I can’t be the only one out there that feels like she’s running in circles. Gosh, I always end up babbling about this…I’ll stop.
So I’ve been on a reading roll. This past week I finished two books; the first being Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer and the second being Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer. Eclipse was alright. I think I read it more because I had to find out what happened after New Moon. I’d discuss it except I wouldn’t want to spoil it for anyone who is in the middle or plans on reading the series in the future. I read Hope Was Here in like two days. Love it. It’s a sweet and quick read that just has so much inspiration in it to persevere through the tough times. I remember randomly picking up another one of Joan Bauer’s book back in high school called Best Foot Forward, and I liked that one a lot too. She writes a lot about people from broken homes, untraditional families, or with messed up pasts that somehow manage and even come out on top even though everything seemed to go against them. Really moves your heart and makes you want to be a better person.
’sigh’ This week has been exhausting, but thank You for sustaining me. I really don’t deserve it, but You love me anyway. 
