Redeeming My Time

ever since i started my college career, i have felt this desperate need to redeem the time i lost after high school. you see, i am not your traditional student...i messed up my life in so many ways after i graduated from high school. so, i have felt blessed with the opportunity to redeem myself. the wonderful opportunity, however, came with a huge responsibility: DO IT RIGHT!!! thus, i have been killing myself for each grade. i have struggled through many semesters, but i have never faltered. you see, my dear reader, i was trying to redeem my past. in vain i have tried, only to come to the sudden realization that i can't. only Jesus can redeem me--my past, my fears, and my sins.

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Below is a beautiful poem written by Jael Sprinkle. Thank you so much!!!


She sits and studies in a chair
Near the window
With clear air
Filtering through
Releasing cares of
Her grow-up life.

She's a girl again
Sweet and pretty
With a mind and a will
And a dream

But the woman inside her
brings the fight that lights
her alive and gives her a drive
and keeps her turning
page upon page upon
pencil scratched page
til she's written the world
exactly the way
she wishes.

It's a fight-

And the light's gone low
her supper's cold
but she closes her book and
turns off the lamp.
Quietly she crosses the living room
to kiss her sleeping husband who waited
until he dozed on the couch, the television on.
She presses "off" then makes her way down
the hall to her sleeping daughters
to catch a glimpse of their small faces
to remember the reason she's turning the pages
of a life once stale, now full, overflowing
with trying and fighting and pushing and moving
everything around until it fits
just the way she wanted it.

Her life, once small, now large enough
for grandchildren and intelligent love
and students that might never have known
this lovely world that she has presented to them
from the crisp pages
she was up til midnight
crafting with her very soul
to move their very souls
to see the world
she wrote for her children's children.


You have my every confidence. Hang in there friend!!

for the week ending 10/16

well, another week is in the books. i did so-so and i'm just glad the week is over. there are now officially eight weeks left in the semester. and, eight times 3 is 24, so that means that i have 24 more days of this agonizing term left.





grammar: we learned about adverbs and particles. particles are actually a lot of fun. they can be moved around in a sentence with no problem. i.e. Gage put off the operation. Gage put the operation off. She turned in the exam. She turned the exam in. OFF and IN are the particles and they can be moved around in a sentence. adverbs, on the other hand, are not fun at all! i actually have to engage my brain...



hemingway: we started a farewell to arms. i wish i had read romeo and juliet. a farewell to arms is suppose to be hemingway's romeo and juliet and i don't see the comparisons because i've never read romeo and juliet.



american novel: we are still reading the scarlet letter. what can i say? dimmesdale put himself through hell for not confessing. hester, on the other hand, seems to me like she gave the puritans "h*ll" by defiantly wearing the scarlet letter.



descriptive linguistics: i missed monday's lecture, and i had a lost feeling all week. i missed the lecture on prepositional phrases. we took a quiz on friday. i know for sure that i labeled "may" as a complement, when it was really an auxilary verb. oh, well...



literary theory: I'M DYING!!!!!!! i really don't get "IT." i think the schools are fighting over abstract things that will never have an absolute answer. to think that some people have made this their life's work is mind-boggling!



en francais: i'm still trying to learn french. i am reading "le petit prince." c'est tres interessant!



that is it for this past week. i need to work on some homework that is due tommorow.

au revoir!

for the week ending on 10/08

this week was a mixed bag. on the one hand, i received excellent grades on two tests. on the other hand, I AM BEAT!!! i feel beat both mentally and physically. And, there is still nine more agonzing weeks before this is all over.

but, here we go:

Grammar: Are "a" and "an" indefinite or definite articles? Well, let me tell you, judging by the three points I lost on the test, they are INDEFINITE articles. If I had taken the time to engage my brain, I think I would have gotten the right answer.

let me see, what else? we started studying adverbs today. i think adverbs are the hardest, most misunderstood, i-don't-want-to-study-them kind of words. why? i guess because they are unclear to me. for example, i have adjectives down pat: a part of speech that modifies a noun. i.e., beautiful, handsome, pretty, etc. but, adverbs modify verbs. hmm? if they end in -ly, i have no problem. but, enough already about adverbs.

Hemingway: i took a test last friday and did well. what would i be able to say about hemi that would add to the extensive scholarship that already exists? NOTHING!! we read short stories all of this week; mostly about Italy. i do wonder, though, if he saw/experienced first hand the change of values after wwi. we all know that he served with the italians during the war, but did he realize all that had changed after the war when he went back?

American Novel: we have started reading the scarlet letter. ah, hester, hester, why did you get yourself into so much trouble? was dimmesdale worth it? or was it that chillingsworth was not worth keeping? the puritans, you must admit, were extremely harsh and practically Godless. they had NO mercy! perhaps my statement is harsh, but i wonder how could they demonstrate God's mercy?

Descriptive Linguistics: oh, my goodness! trees, trees, and more trees. S--> NP VP. or S--> NP VP PP, something like that. we took a quiz today...

Literary Theory: dr. b lectured on historical criticism and the yellow wallpaper. she nearly had a confession out of me. "yes, it's too true! i am the woman in the yellow wallpaper trying desperately to get out! i have need to work--I have not worked these passed 11 years."
ay, ay, ay...

et parce qu'est vendredi, aujourd'hui, je suis allee a mon "cours" de francais.

i didn't do too well. i need to take these french lessons more seriously.

that is all folks!

we will see what the next week will bring.

bien a vous!