someone suggested I post this lol

So given that life can throw some challenges my way, I like to find ways of lightening the effects these challenges can have.

Lately with school work, specifically with applications to phd programs, I have been stressed - I have taken on alot at school and I am doing well with it - the added pressure of those applications hasn't been easy for me but I'm managing and know I'll be thankful once the process is complete and I have my acceptance letters sitting in front of me - where I'll have the options of deciding which program will be best for me. That's a beautiful vision :)

Anyway - tonight while trying to read about phd programs, I sneezed a few times and jokingly messaged my friends saying that i'm doing school work and sneezing therefore I'm allergic to school work lol.

For fun, I wrote this letter to a journal in my area and showed it to a close friend of mine and she suggested I post it on my blog so here it is :)

Dear [journal name],

My colleague and I are pleased to share some excellent news in the area of school stress and graduate students. We have discovered that students can in FACT be allergic to school work when there is repeated exposure. This finding is very much influencial as it will lead to research in interventions and preventative measures needed for grad students to be free of such consequences. We look forward to you publishing not only this paper but all papers to come regarding this imperative matter that faces our colleagues of the future.

Sincerely,

Ally Gerrick-Tuskolverk

This would be neat...

I think it would be neat to be able to talk to a younger version of yourself - to see how we thought and processed things. With memory of course we could infer we thought in such a way but we'd never be exact. We've developed so much with age and experience you never see the same thing the same way twice.

There's a theory that discusses this, James' stream of consciousness (for those of you who can't stand james or memories of history of psyc my apologies lol). James (1842-1910) argued that our thoughts and experiences are like a water stream never repeating, forever flowing, never having the same thought or experience twice. Once a thought passes it goes down the stream never to happen the exact same way again.

With each passing experience we become different people. I believe each experience we have makes us who we are, no matter how small. In my current fascination with who I was as a baby, a child, and an adolescent, I do not want to go back in time - I'm good with my current path and moving toward my bright future. I want to just gather a fuller undertanding of myself - seeing what I as a baby saw, experienced, see who I thought I was as child and the numerous experiences I had.

I love hearing about what I was like when I was growing from family. I love hearing what I was like as a baby or hearing that when I was a toddler I had such a dislike for clothes that I would rather be naked but still wore socks - i must have loved socks (as I still do to this day) and still needed to be wearing those lol.

I find life itself such a fascinating thing - the experiences, the thoughts we have - I think about this almost on a regular basis (probably why I'm studying it now). I love finding out how our past experience mold who we are today - good and the bad - we grow and learn from both.

Not only do I think about my past but I also think about my future. What will it be like when I'm 40 or when I'm 70 or older. What kind of experiences will I have, what kind of person will I be?

Although I have my interests in the past and the future, in the present, I can be very much in a moment. It is my goal to take in each experience, really appreciate the beauty of life...it truly is a gift.

Here's to the past, present and future and the lessons we continue to learn.