Looking into the future

I have two days of school, and then freedom, indefinitely. I have chosen not to apply to grad programs, language teaching programs, or any of the other things I've considered or said I'd do upon graduation. I want to get out and work.

The option to go do anything is so exciting to me. I could be offered an international job and I could take it - I have no real, permanent strings attached here. No house, kids... I'm free. And I want to chase down every second if it. 

So if I passed my math class, I will be walking at the end if January. Grades don't come out for another 2+ weeks so I'm just going to have to suffer. It was really close, like the skin of my teeth, 50/50, pass/fail kind of close. I still don't know if the stuff I did until the midnight deadline is going to help me. 

I'm going to speak as if I have freedom in January. I want a job. I want a job that is going to make me work hard and challenge me. One that will be tough but have its rewards when I know I've been able to do something. I want to learn. I want to watch, but I want to do. 

I'm not sure what life has in store for me, but I want to find out as soon as possible and learn all the lessons out there for me.

I'm ready to move on.

Ready for Renovations

Renovation needs to happen here... I'm back from Europe and haven't updated my photography or uploaded anything in a while. I need to update my website, apply for jobs and/or internships, start new photo/journalism projects, and generally begin to take the steps for the next stage of my life.

I kept a small journal of everything Sophie, my sister, and I did while we were away. I'm hoping that I can rewrite it here as one of my projects. 

I have a rather large list of things I need to take care of this week - probably in the morning - because this jet lag is worse than when I came back from Asia. Even though my body is generally unhappy with the time change, my brain feels like it's been run over by a train.

So I promise to myself - but mostly and more importantly to those in my book and others who are waiting on me to finish projects - that I will get it all done. Very, very soon. 

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These are the keys to the hostel in Budapest. I would like to think that the old and new keys represent some kind of renovation that I'm talking about and I could come up with a clever caption but I have long passed my ability to function.  

I also have to rewrite the intro page. I think I was almost as sleep deprived when I wrote it as I am now. Now - off to a sleep that hopefully won't result in at 1 a.m. wake up. 

Published and all set up

I finally published 70 Years Later: The Japanese-American Internment as Remembered by Those Who Lived Through It and set it up for selling in print and as a PDF. I still have to figure out how to get the people I interviewed a copy; I don't want them to have to buy one. 

Here it is:

The project is a step in the direction I want to go. Many more photographs and quotes didn't make it into the book, so more will come.