things were very ok

    Dear Harriet Walter,

    Goodness gracious. Is it the end of the semester already? The end of the (academic) year?

    Here I am, it's a Saturday, it's April 21st, next week will be the last week of classes, I have a plane ticket to take me back north, the buzz of graduation is in the air. The week after next is finals week. Two weeks from this moment I'll be sitting in an airport, drained of all energy from writing papers and taking exams.* How did that happen?

    My second semester was about a million times better than my first. The first was wonderful in some ways, and I thought I was pretty happy about it at the time, but it was interesting to see how after I came back for the second my perception of the first changed, because for the second things were different and better, and I only had one morning class, and the days got longer and sunnier, and I had two enjoyable English classes instead of math and public speaking (if you knew me, you would say to yourself this here is a girl who is not cut out for math or public speakery), and a particular bit of Emotional Drama that got worse and worse over the fall got easier and better over the spring, and I know who my friends are and basically what I'm doing and everything is just good now.

    Also my grades have been much better overall this semester. And history class was more fun this semester because we were less all over the globe and not covering, like, the beginning of time down to the 16th century. This semester was much more focused, and Dr. Mac got to teach us about the Enlightenment and Romanticism and the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution and the World Wars and nationalism and colonial imperialism and all kinds of neat things. Dude loves the French Revolution more than anyone I'll ever know. And oh gosh, the things I learned in my other classes.

    Do you ever think about the phrase "a whole 'nother"? Like "I've got a whole 'nother paper to do before Tuesday," or "there's a whole 'nother carton of that ice cream in the freezer." It's like people are saying "another" but halfway through they need more emphasis so they stick a "whole" in there. But no one ever thinks to say "another whole," or even "a whole extra," or any other variation. I don't know, maybe they don't use that phrase in England.
  
*This was written in the early afternoon. Now remembering to post this shortly after midnight. Oh lands, I've just written four pages analyzing in depth a short story by Faulkner and have three or four more pages to write tomorrow, I need bed like I need air