A long time ago, in a galaxy, far, far away...

 For anyone who does not know, I graduated with a Master's degree in English Literature in May 2010 from the University of South Carolina. It was a challenging and harrowing two years for many reasons, and for the most part, I walked across that stage and have not looked back. Today, though, I was reading through some unfinished drafts from Ye Olde Blog and came across this gem from May 2010. It is chock-full of quotations gleaned from my students' final portfolio project in English 102, Rhetoric and Composition (I was a T.A.).
I challenge you to read through these and not laugh out loud. Perhaps you will hearken back to your own undergraduate days and those annoying classes that you were forced to take or teach.


"To be honest with you, with all of my exams this week the revision process for this portfolio had to wait till the end....Overall the revision process for all of these papers was not fun at all. Having to look back at my work that was poorly written was kind of annoying." (My apologies, O Infringed Upon One. Being 18 is sooo time-consuming.)

"Thank you for teaching me this semester, I actually learned a lot from you." (I include this one because of the word actually and its bearing on the sentence.)

"Rhetoric cannot leave your side in the environment we live in." (Anyone else picturing a creepy stalker?)

"All of these papers had one thing in common and that was the use of rhetoric." (Since the class was entitled "Composition and Rhetoric," that sounds about right.)

"I am also a waitress and I use rhetoric at work by trying to persuade my customers to upgrade and get the more expensive item on the menu." (This is actually a great real world example. Kudos, random student.)

"It was probably sometime around 11 pm on a Monday night when I began my revision process, after a long and well-deserved nap. After an hour of revising I decided to take a break." (When I read this, I imagine my dog and his lazy afternoons where he wanders between beds, couches and sunny spots on the floor to nap).

"Before this class, I never really thought about rhetoric at all. I did not analyze any posters I walked by or commercials I saw. And I still don't. But now I have outside knowledge so that if I did want to analyze a piece of rhetoric I would be able to." (As if an uncritical approach to the world is something to be proud of?)

10 for '10

In no particular order, here is a smattering of the notable things that occurred in 2010.

1. We celebrated our second wedding anniversary on Nov. 1. Hurrah for two terrific years of marriage! We have grown a lot this year as a team (see #3 and #5) and I can't wait to see what 2011 brings.

2. We started (and mostly completed) two renovation projects in our house: the master bathroom and the kitchen. On a not-so-awesome note, due to one thing or another, I completely failed at getting good before pictures, thus making these milestones semi-lame in a blogging sense. We love our new kitchen though and will get pictures up soon.

3. We traveled a lot: Colorado, Europe, Northern Africa, Hawaii and various points around the Southeast. Favorite moments include hiking in the Alps; exploring Malaga, Spain; putting together distribution packets in Guillermo's bookstore; celebrating my cousin's wedding in the glorious Colorado sunshine with lots of family; seeing my sister's ohana (apartment) and new workplace; riding on the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad with Thomas' family in the beautiful North Carolina fall; eating at Spago's and many other amazing adventures.


4. We got to see our little nephew Colton go from a helpless newborn to a crawling, verbal little guy that keeps everyone on their toes.

5. We got a dog that we love to pieces!! Sullivan has been so much fun (and so much work) this year and we can't get enough of his goofy antics. He is right around 70 pounds, a destroyer of plush toys, a shredder of paper and a sniffer of epic proportions. He is the perfect family dog and we are thrilled to have him--except maybe at 5 am when he wants to jump on the bed and "snuggle," aka take up more than 1/3 of the bed with his long legs and force his parents into absurd positions.

6. My parents moved to Charleston! We have really enjoyed having them around and are excited to watch them build a life here with church involvement, tennis of course, and maybe even the successful completion of a short sale. They also love Sullivan, and their help with him has been invaluable.

7. I finished graduate school and got a full time job! Tens of thousands of pages, and probably an equal number of miles, and a master's thesis later, I now have a degree that is still sitting unframed on my desk.Ironically, neither the degree nor the job has anything to do with the other, but I am so happy to be done with commuting and to be a part of such a wonderful environment at PCA that the lack of literature in my teaching position doesn't matter.

8. We deepened friendships, church involvement and neighborhood presence (thanks to Sullivan). We attended and took part in six weddings, welcomed a few friends' babies into the world and generally had a blast hanging out with people.

9. We celebrated two snowfalls in Charleston, one in February and one just a few days ago. Yay! I survived another boiling hot summer. Yay!

10. And most importantly, we enjoyed another year of God's grace, mercy and forgiveness in our relationships and everyday lives. This verse was on our Christmas cards and was a sort of theme verse for the year:
"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast." Eph. 2:8-9

See you in 2011! Maybe I can crack 30 for my number of posts next year...