I'd make a newsy update, but there's not much in the way of news...

I'm sending a check to NYU tomorrow to reserve my place in Madrid next fall - or, rather, for late August, which is when they want me over there.  I want them to tell me an actual date, so I can start looking for plane tickets!

Ohmygosh. 

I have flashes of "I-can't-believe-I'm-doing-this" moments, of course, and the even rarer "how-am-I-going-to-do-this" moments... but for the most part I just grin like an idiot from the sheer joy of it.  I'm going back to Spain!

In other news, I'll be writing research papers until I collapse (sometime mid-April).  I picked up my cap and gown the other day... talk about surreal.  It's strange to look back over the past four years and think about how much has changed, how much all the people I love have changed... how much I have changed. 

Yeah, sorry.  Graduation, reminiscence, vague philosophizing... they kind of go together.

It's been a strange year in many ways.  For the first time ever, I lost a friend to something more than distance.  I hope not for good, but there are some things no one can control.  I've vacillated between perfectionism and senioritis, I've been clubbed over the head with Studio One (lit mag), I've made gigantic decisions and reversed them and then stuck with them... and I may not be able to see where any of it is leading, but for the second time in my life I've discovered that, if I can handle what's been thrown at me so far, I can handle anything. 

Hence, back to Spain.  As much as I don't want to say goodbye to my friends and as much as I love it here, I think I'm ready to move on, and most everything in me yearns to be back there. 

Voy haciendo mis planes
Voy sabiendo quien soy
Voy buscando mi parte
Voy logrando el control.

Puede ser que la vida me guíe hasta el sol...

The lyrics aren't mine, but I have started to write poetry in Spanish.  The writing isn't flowing quite like it was last spring, but I'm finally finding the words again -- and it's spring.  Time for rebirth.