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[bloom_within]

Graduate school plans are slowly taking shape, after, oh, years of denial.

Being interested in American issues -- no, wait, the Midwest -- is like my darkest secret. Well, sort of. Anyone who knows me in real life would call bullshit on that one, as I am rather open about my deep love and affection for my home state of Iowa. But in the

Comments

[im_marvelous]

okay here's my take

[bloom_within]

Long or not, Kristina, every word mattered. Thanks for taking the time to write this.

[im_marvelous]

you're welcome.

i'm starting to accept that us, college grads, having doubts of what we are capable of doing is normal, but what really becomes a testament of our characters is what we will do with those self-doubts. will you let it bog you down and play it safe or will you go out there and take control of your path?

i think you have a great topic/issue to start your path in anthropology. you just need to find your own voice to set yourself apart and hopefully surprise the people who might think that you are wasting your time exploring the Midwest.

and just remember not everyone can so quickly jump on doing "bigger" things, like studying the blood and crypts. some people would rather take small steps when walking on their career path, but it doesn't mean you are no less of a person or your worth is any less than the ones, taking giant leaps.

i just think, at this point, discovering yourself is what matters the most than discovering the world around you. and so i wish you all the luck with whichever path you take. :)

[im_marvelous]

and you know, if you get get accepted and choose to go to NYU, i will have to move in with you. hahahaha.

[scarykarrey]

It's ALL important, and it needs someone to do it. Why can't it be you? I SHOULD be you, because it's in your heart.

[bloom_within]

A mini-intervention on livejournal! You're right, of course. Everyone who has commented so far has been right.

[applekravitzrex]

I wish I could tell you that the #1 thing everyone who thinks about grad school worries about is something other than feelings of fraudulence and illegitimacy. That's the #1 thing, though. But if the reason not to be an academic is that it doesn't change the world enough... well... I'll bet you every documentary filmmaker wishes with burning teary eyes that their documentaries fixed the problems they exposed. Self-standards like "change the world" make for frustrated people. Frustration can be productive, but it cuts both ways. And I would be loathe to find out just how much impact poco departments in American universities have had in effecting legitimate social change. Just remember: what you want to do is way more important than what you think you ought to do. The world will be way better off with another passionate and earnest student of old white folks and their backwards ways than it would be with another post-colonial hand-wringer motivated by the pressures of white guilt or righteous indignation. Follow yr bliss, Mags.

[bloom_within]

I miss you. That's all I can think of to say in response.

[bloom_within]

And I'm also sort of fantasizing about you giving me advice about grad school (which is good, good advice) while eating Hy-Vee donut holes and twizzlers and drinking Dr. Pepper.

Your dad has a part-time job advertised in the paper this week. His personal assistant. Steve interpreted this as revving up the crowd with screen printed towels and beaded necklaces (Okay, those details are my interpretation) before your dad jogs out to the podium, waving, blowing kisses. Still, anyway, for real, Steve might apply.

[peter]

I was going to say that if you went to indiana that me and michelle could say hi the next time we visit her dad, but to be honest indiana itself seemed pretty lame as a whole for the three months we were there.

Saying that, any lame place can be great depending on the people you have in your life while you're there.

Michelle said she went to texas once and would never go back, she shudders a bit and says things like 'the tree's buzzed' when you ask her about it.

[bloom_within]

Did you happen to find a Popeye's Chicken when you were there? Mmm, fried.

Oh, Indiana. I've been to the southern parts -- yes, lame -- but never to Bloomington, the college town that I'm considering. Same thing with Austin, in Texas. I'd be wary of those states otherwise.

Buzzing? Like cicadas?