like a tree breathing through its spectacles

Has it really been three months since I last got to post here? That is just truly ridiculous, and I apologize... although I can't necessarily say I'm totally apologetic about it. This past semester has truly been the busiest time of my life - and possibly the most fulfilling as well.

So many changes have happened that I'm not really sure where to begin. I guess the top two things to note are that (a) my family is hosting a Chinese exchange student, Angel (more on this later hopefully) and (b) I'm nearing the end of the college application process (was deferred during the early application round from my first choice college [which has changed since the last time I posted about college on this blog]).

I feel like I've been pushed to my limits physically, academically, and especially emotionally (weird, right?) in the past couple of months. However, it's been great in that along the way, I've also just grown a lot as a person and learned a lot about myself as well as my relationships with friends and family. I've learned to both take things at face value and not take things for granted.

Mostly I'm just really thankful for what this year has brought me. I have an incredibly large inferiority complex and often feel utterly inadequate, but it's astounding to simply step back and look at what I've been given - I am so lucky to be where I am right now, and I know that things will turn out well even if they don't go exactly as planned (life works in mysterious ways, after all).

I just want to acknowledge the fact that the above writing has given about zero interesting anecdotes from my life, but at this point it's been so long since I've updated that realistically, logging everything interesting that's happened to me in the past few months is just not a feasible task. Forgive me!

So anyway, I rather enjoyed today. After waking up after spending the morning in a field of dreams, I went ice skating with Cindy and Angel for an hour or so. After we got back home, I finished flipping through the Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara (who has recently become my favorite author - his poems are so breezy and accessible but still fantastically reflective of life itself). Then later this night we had a little party where we wrapped the gifts we had yet to wrap for friends. I think Christmas was quite lovely, despite the fact that it's not at all a big deal for our family.

Just want to leave this post with this video of me reciting O'Hara's "Having A Coke With You" which I recorded this afternoon. I'm a little bit obsessed with this piece, and even wrote about it in one of my college supplements ;)
My reading is essentially based off of O'Hara's own reading, which feels pretty much perfect. The poem itself feels pretty perfect to me, actually.



I've never been in love, but I'm willing to bet that this poem is what it feels like.

Thanks for being here, blog lovelies. I miss you.
-K