Writing This Wrong

God,
Grant me the Serenity to accept things I cannot change,
Courage to change things I can,
and the Wisdom to know the difference.

I'm tucked away in a different part of campus. The last few weeks have been a complete breeze-by: final exams, goodbyes, graduation. For each person, I feel at least one of these is extremely difficult. I'm now a senior, just finishing my junior year in college. It's anxious and exciting - I love it. I'm able to think about the future realistically now because it isn't just a dream that's years off. A handful of friends graduated last week - friends, friends of friends, family of friends, etc. I know a lot of people who have graduated this year.

So cheers to the Class of 2013!

I'm staying in DC for the summer, still looking for jobs (plural) to take on. I've gotten some great offers but soon I'll have some income. I moved from my single room in one building on campus to another - shifting from one huge room of my own to one small room of many in the apartment suite. I moved my friend and myself into our rooms in the Sunday DC rain.

It took two days to figure out where to put everything in my small room. But I love the building - the Taj Mahal of college dorm buildings. The side I'm on overlooks the DC metro and looks out to the city. Thankfully when the fall semester comes, I only need to move 4 floors up to the 7th floor, where the huge kitchen/lounge open it's arms to the crazy, eventful, crime-ridden, majestic city that is DC.

Though my room is small, my desk faces outside the window so I get a nice view. Today is the first day it's been sunny since Friday night or Saturday - it rained the day of graduation. So I appreciate the weather, even though the DC heat is unforgiving and the sky is cloudy. The humidity makes my skin feel sticky and makes it difficult to travel for groceries - and bring them back.

There's a strong breeze today. The tree - unfortunately smack outside my window (and only MY window, naturally - is being blown to and fro. The leaves are bright green, as are the rest of the trees surrounding Brookland in Northeast DC. I never had a view like this in Italy - it was the 5th floor balcony view of traffic, adult conversations outside stores, men in suits on their way to work. DC is different.

I'm a converted city girl, though I've always known it in my heart. I'm fast-paced and a people watcher. I'm always looking for a good place to sit for 2 hours and watch everyone pass. The confused looks on the faces of tourists, excited kids on a weekend trip in DC, and the aggravated DC natives who are constantly pissed by them all - they're all here and you see everything.

You are Braver than you believe, Stronger than you seem, and Smarter than you think.

When one of my best friends left some books for me. They were ones she didn't want to keep after her Psychology of Aging class was over. So I took them! One of them is called Losing My Mind by Thomas DeBaggio. I'm halfway through it and it is fantastic! It's about the author, Thomas DeBaggio, who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's at 57 years old. He writes about his depleting memory and everything he goes through. It's an intimate look as Alzheimer's disease. And the book is well done.

Here's to summer 2013 and all the memories it brings!