Author Archives: Christene

Well Then

It is official. The worst part about doctoral applications is the transcripts submission process. I just got another email this morning from a different school that cannot locate my transcripts. And this time it is worse. The first school that did this was terribly cryptic about the whole thing more or less telling me “there is something wrong with your application, but we can’t tell you what. Contact us immediately.” And then after a bit of back and forth it was resolved. The school this morning told me “there is something wrong with your application. We can’t find your undergraduate transcripts.Do not contact us. Resolve the issue immediately.” Well then.

And they have this attachment they need included with the transcript, meaning I have to reprint it, fill it out, personally take it to my undergraduate school, and have them resend it.

However, because I am terrible at following directions, I did contact their English department directly in regards to this. And got a prompt response back basically stating “what did we say about contacting us?”

Well then. I guess I know what I will be doing on Friday.

Update: They found my transcripts. Can you guess where they were? Under my maiden name. Which defeats the whole purpose of having a cover sheet attached to them stating my account number, current information, and/or any name changes.

 

What You Will

Life is a long preparation for something that never happens.

-W.B. Yeats
This is quite a self explanatory and self sufficient little quote. It stands alone and says everything it needs to say in a nutshell. No one knows the meaning of life. It simply is – something which exists – for its own sake. You make of it whatever you will because in the end, nothing really matters. If you are the sort that wants to believe in some kind of afterlife, that may well be, but that too is after life.
Life, in and of itself, is an isolated unit within your existence.
Life is comprised of the mundane, the exhilarating, the monotonous, the unsustainable, and most importantly in my opinion, the ever changing. It is never one thing, and permutes each day, week, and decade. The person you are now is probably not the person you were ten years ago, twenty years ago, or the person you will be twenty years from now. You can call it development, or numerous other adjectives, but it is always growth. If you are the sum of your experiences, then as time moves on, you acquire more and are in a constant state of growth.
Some believe others regress. It is never regression, but rather flux. You may have bad times, prolonged to what may feel like an eternity, but ultimately these too are experiences. You can learn from them, or simply learn to identify them. In the long run, there are no bad experiences, just opportunities for growth. In the short term, it can feel as if your life is falling apart.
If you want to believe that life is a recurring event, then would it not make the most sense to want to live it to its fullest? Or would you rather repeat monotony ad infinitum?
And that is yet another learning experience. Fulfillment is not always full. Sometimes nothing is fulfilling. Something quiet is fulfilling. Other times you need the unfeasible noise of life for extended periods of time. And by unfeasible I mean temporary. That time in your life where you lived in a way that cannot be kept up indefinitely, that simultaneously pleased and exhausted, and was deteriorated with age, where, looking back, you cannot fathom doing again.
Ultimately, life is what it is, and it is. It came from nothing, and prepares you for nothing. Make of it what you will.

Posts

I just got a message from someone in regards to my Faust post a few weeks ago. She was very upset that she read a post she felt was unoriginal, and a complete waste of her time, and felt the need to put this into words.

I am used to receiving criticism on my posts, both good and bad, but generally the criticism is a little more insightful, or somewhat more detailed than calling my posts a “complete waste of time.” When people have complaints about something I have written, they generally get specific.

First, this post is a lesson plan for an undergraduate English course. I am simply trying to explicate a classic literary text to first and second year college students. I will be the first to say it is not original, even though some of the ideas on there are originally mine (and I am sure many others have also had the same ideas). This is not a “Let’s revolutionize Faust” lecture.

Also, I am aware that this is one of my lengthier posts, and I have had quite a few of those recently (with the intention of having several more). But in the end I must remind everyone that reading my blog always was, and remains, optional. Yes, I link my blog posts to Facebook, Twitter, and various forms of social media, but no one is obligated to read them.

If you do not find my posts interesting in the least, I have to say I obviously do not agree, but I will offer a perfect time saving suggestion: stop reading and close your browser window.