Some Interests

I didn't declare my major (that I'm graduating in) until my junior year. A really big part of the problem in figuring out what I want to do in life is specializing... There are just a lot of things I enjoy, and it was really hard to pick a major; I ended up basing the decision on two things: it was an open major (no application) and the introductory class was interesting because it seemed to combine several of my interests. As I mentioned, I feel now like my major is kind of a dead end... So, back to square one.

- Writing. I probably started blogging a couple years ago, but I've loved writing for years. Like many of my hobbies, writing for fun fell by the wayside because I got busy with school and other distractions. I loved my creative writing class that I took my sophomore year in college - that's when I learned the value of editing and the power of my own writing. Unfortunately, I didn't get a good grade in that class because I didn't try very hard to keep up in the reading and because as a chronic procrastinator, deadlines haven't been my friends.

- Reading. I was a horribly voracious reader while growing up. The issues were that I would often ignore homework in favor of a delicious novel, and my reading level far surpassed my maturity level, so in middle school I stopped finding books that were sufficiently challenging because the content was more mature than I could handle. I also realized going into high school that I had to stop reading for fun if I was ever going to get homework done. Until recently, I basically just read for fun in the summer. I've slowly started picking up fun books again, but I still have problems putting the book down to take care of responsibilities. For my reading selection, I've mostly reread old favorites and gotten a couple recommendations from my family.

- Languages. I started learning Spanish in third grade and became enchanted with it. I was into American Girl Dolls at the time and Josephina, a nine year-old from colonial New Mexico, had just been introduced; I connected her with what I learned in school and became infatuated with everything I learned about Latin culture. I learned a little linguistics from my sophomore year Spanish teacher and took AP Spanish (advanced placement, a class with a standardized test of completion) my senior year in high school, and fully intended to study German, Italian, and Latin in college. I got to university and took German 101 my first semester. That was a shocker. It had been a long time since I started learning a new language, and the immersion environment in my classroom was overwhelming. I didn't want my GPA to suffer further, so I never went beyond that level. I still love the variety of languages and culture in the world, but my progress in learning them has slowed significantly.

- Crafting. I've always loved sewing and crafting, combining imagination and hands-on ability. My major limits have been time and experience. I remember trying to sew a dress by hand for myself around the time I was in fifth grade; sewing by hand limited the size of my projects, and my techniques were made-up and not very effective (that dress was very simply designed and fell apart quickly). I had a lot of good ideas and would often sketch out ideas for projects, but just didn't have the know-how to execute them. Once again, as I grew older I had less time for fun things like that and had to focus on school. Luckily, being married and maintaining my own frugal home has given me a new opportunity to get back into this again.

- People. This interest has undergone a lot of evolution in my life; naturally, I'm shy, but I really like being with people and getting to know them, and my social graces have improved through college. I like seeing what each person has to offer, and also seeing how people work. AP Psychology was one of the most useful classes I took in high school, and I loved my Human Development class in college; they're both just so applicable in working with people. Growing up, I sometimes felt more adept interacting with kids or hanging out with older people.

- Education. I considered majoring in elementary education, but after meeting with a second-grade teacher, decided that the low paychecks and multitasking weren't worth it (I also had a roommate who taught fifth grade, and could see that it was a lot of work). This is something that I feel pretty passionately about though because education is so influential and because of my difficulties with school. I've thought about educational administration, teaching, reform, alternatives, et cetera, and I'm still not sure where my best fit is.

Other interests of mine have included occasional sketching, cooking (being experimental and successful is a really fun combination), religious studies, composing or performing music (it's been a long time since I picked up my violin, but it met the same story as many other scholastic endeavors - I didn't put work into maintaining it), family history, and ballroom and social dance (I tried to complete the ballroom dance minor in college, but never had a successful audition to go beyond the open enrollment classes). I'll add any others as I think of them, but I think this covers most things.