Does anyone else start to become very busy once summer hits? Like, there’s something about sunshine that makes everyone get up and do things and be more productive.
For the past two weeks, I feel like I’m all over the place. Well, maybe not physically all over the place (I’ve been spending a lot of time stuck in my house), but mentally I’m running around and getting all sorts of tasks done.
And so, to give you an idea of what I’ve been up to lately, here it is in list form:
1.) Yard Work
If I did the math correctly, I spent about 4.5 hours last week pulling weeds from my backyard. You may think that we must have a ton of land, but it’s just a lot of landscape. And the first weed-pulling of the year is always the worst. (I had done the front yard the week before.) I was hoping to gain some sort of tan while I was outside, but it didn’t happen. Too much shade, I suppose. I was also required to transplant grass that was growing in our front yard landscape and input them into our patchy backyard lawn. This worked out better than I had hoped.
I’m a little disappointed in the flowers I had planted in the end of May, though. All the rain we’ve been getting is starting to drown my flowers. In fact, one of the species I picked out is practically dead. Sigh. Waste of money. And they were such a pretty deep purple color.
A squirrel has already tried to ruin one of my flower pots. I thought it was one of the rabbits already (every year they munch on my flowers), but none of the petals were touched. Instead, there was a gaping hole where they uprooted one of my flowers. Earlier in the week, I already had to chase away another squirrel as it was leaning over and inspecting another one of my pots. It appears that I’m going to look like a madwoman this summer, running and yelling at squirrels, lol.
2.) Basement Improvements
This past Monday-Thursday, we’ve had two people over to paint the basement. To prep for them, my family and I spent the previous weekend moving whatever was left in the basement (aside from the really heavy items) and hauled them upstairs to the main floor. We also stuck a few things into my sister’s old room upstairs since she doesn’t live here anymore. Needless to say, it now looks like I live in a hoarder house.
But since someone had to be home while the painters worked, that duty fell on me. My dad would debrief with them once they arrived at 9 a.m., but then he would leave to go back to work. So I’ve been trapped in the house during those days from 9-4:30 p.m. (Except for a period of time on Wednesday afternoon. I’m sure the painters never realized I was gone for that long.) I’ve been so restless lately because of my “imprisonment.” The basement looks really nice now, though. Next step: picking out the new carpet.
3.) Reading
During those hours when I was stuck in the house, I found myself doing a lot of reading. I’ve been having laptop issues lately – which is making me mad – but it’s forced me to step away from the computer because I don’t want to deal with it. Hence all the reading in between actually doing other things on my to-do list.
Two days ago, I finished Katharine McGee’s THE TOWERING SKY. I really enjoyed her trilogy, even if it’s usually not the kind of book I’d typically pick up. She did a nice job with creating distinct characters and some cool futuristic world-building. I didn’t expect her to end it on such a happy note, but considering all the grief and guilt she had her characters go through, I guess they deserved some happiness.
4.) Writing
When June started, I decided to casually undergo a writing schedule for the month. For every day that ends in an “odd” number, I had to write something fictional for at least an hour. Unfortunately, I failed to write anything on June 1. To be fair, it was a Saturday and I spent a few hours that day hauling things from the basement upstairs. But since June 3, I’ve been keeping up with it. I never quite know what to write, but once I finally get started, the hour goes by quickly.
I’d really like to get back into some manuscript-like writing, but I haven’t landed on an idea that I feel confident enough about. So for now, it’s just short stories or scenes that could belong to some sort of larger story.
5.) Like Looking from the Other Side of a Mirror
This past Wednesday, I met a girl who had just graduated from MSU last month. She was new to our group, but she had met two of my friends earlier in the week, so she was invited to join us for bible study. For a newcomer I was surprised by how talkative she was, but as she shared parts of her life and current struggles as a recent graduate, it took me back to my days when I was in her position as a 21-year-old.
By the end of the evening, I finally got a chance to tell her how I was an alumni and I asked her which church group she had belonged to out there. Unfortunately, we were not part of the same organization, but we were obviously familiar with each other’s. It was strange to think about how she enrolled the year after I graduated, did all her four years, and now graduated herself. Like, had it really been five years already since I left that campus?
But it also made me think about this girl who I kinda looked up to as a mentor when I joined my first bible study post-MSU. I haven’t seen or heard from her in over three years, but I hope she’s doing okay. Sarah and I had unknowingly gone to the same junior high, high school, and college together (and even got science degrees). She was only two years older than me, but she had qualities that I admired as she navigated trying to be a proper adult.
And although I can’t imagine being some sort of influence on this girl I met on Wednesday (there are plenty of other girls in the group who are doing a better job at being an adult than I am), I almost wanted to tell her some advice as she’s struggling to figure out the next steps post-undergrad. Like how she’ll probably feel directionless for far longer than she’ll think. How getting a job that’s not STEM-related is extremely difficult. How she should buckle up, because you have no idea what your tumultuous twenties will send your way. How being adaptable is probably the best thing you can do for yourself at that stage of life.
But I kept my mouth shut. Perhaps one day, if she keeps coming to our group, I’ll tell her. For now, though, it’s better for her to keep her hope. Best not to scare her about the long and bumpy road she is just beginning to embark on.
After all, I still have 3.5 years left of my twenties. Who am I to tell her when I’m still trying to navigate early adulthood’s twist and turns? Like everyone else, she’ll figure it out. Eventually.
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