welcome to wheaton

i believe i coined a new phrase recently: collegiate mortality: the sudden realization of a: how long it's been since you were a freshman, b: how quickly the time has passed, and/or c: how much longer school as a stage of life lasts. just like real mortality, but for college students. since arriving back on campus yesterday, i'm already in full swing of it. i may have said this before, but it seems fitting that my final semester would be the one where i felt most in-place, most accepted, and most included of any of my semesters. yep. fitting.

but anyway. there is much to write about, and it is very late. remind me to write about being at home, the "joys" of travel, packing, and moving, the first few days here in chicago, and all there is to look forward to.

s'mah burthday!

one of my good friends has this lovable way of speaking in an accent reminiscent of a young child from the south (if you're thinking it's you and the title of this post reads properly to you, it probably is you.) it makes me feel strangely at home in a siblings-at-play sort of way.

it hasn't been an easy past few weeks for me here in chicago. please don't fret, i'm in no danger, but you know how sometimes things just get hard and there's not much to be done. my roommates have gotten more colorful--or perhaps off color would be a better way to put it--since classes have ended for us all. my bike, dylan, has become a labor of love: first, he needed some inner-tube replacements and a little TLC for his gears. then, as though the repairs gave off a scent for those in need of some fast cash, one of my wheels was stolen during the night not two or three days later. i'm not having a great time at the internship (in fact feel increasingly out of place there as time goes on), and i miss seeing my friends from that photo class that ate up my life. funny how things work, innit it?

i am thankful for the friends who have listened to me gripe in a variety of ways and supported me with little things, showing they're paying attention. it really does mean the world, you guys.

the bright lining is that today is my twenty-first birthday. seems crazy, no? i certainly don't feel old enough to be 21. i feel about 19. but i suppose when i turned 19, i felt about 16. and when i turned 16...i felt about 14. see the pattern? it seems that my perceived age is perpetually two or three years behind my actual age. who else gets this? i wonder, does this gap between perceived age and actual age get smaller or larger as time goes on, or does it fluctuate with time? will i feel 24 when i am 26, feel 45 when i am 50, and then go back to feeling 62 when i am 64?) i would love some insight on this perceived age/actual age gap.

i plan to celebrate by going out to dinner with a sorority pal of my mom's, attending a new friend's birthday party on friday, and traveling home on saturday. that is the finest gift of all in this--i get to go home! there is a lot to do between then and now--packing, getting final moving out plans underway, and some of my own projects i've been working on.

can i just say something about being 21? there is a benefit for being under 21 when you're like me: you have an easy reason to say "no" to a lot of things that you're probably just as well without. drinking, and certain shows and clubs (or what have you. personally, i hardly know what to do with myself in a room full of people i know. somehow, going into a dark room of people i don't know just doesn't sound like a good time. sorry.). now that i'm over 21, there goes that excuse. i'm not saying that i'm tempted to dive full-on into a world that has been thus far restricted from me--the opposite, in fact. it's that i have no attraction to the things that i should be rejoicing about now. it's just a heckuva lot more complicated to explain that "no, i don't have problems with other people doing these things responsibly, it's just not my idea of a a great time. plus, that stuff tastes funny. plus, it's not like it's a nutritious drink and i'm trying to watch my health. can you tell me why i should want this? ", as opposed to, "thanks, but can't. not 21 yet."*

except for voting. i'm pretty stoked about voting.





*this entire conversation is an interesting one, actually. i feel as though i'm in the minority of my similarly-aged peers, and it begs questions about how alcohol was treated in my home as i grew up. i'll just clear it up: my house has been alcohol-friendly for about as long as i can remember. not soaked, mind you, but friendly. i was always allowed to try some of what was being served if i wished, and did upon occasion. there was no vilification or exultation of the thing, it plainly was what is was. that's all.

my dad's running for public office!

hurray!
my dad is running for school board in my hometown!
and if that weren't enough of an exciting thing, he's letting me help him setup his online connection and maybe his yard signs! of course, i'm just excited that there are going to be yard signs, with my dad's name on them, but having a hand in them is pretty cool too!

so. keep watching, and i'll be posting a link soon. three cheers!

gloat time

since i'm on this image spree, i'd like to show off some work i've been doing recently.





(don't be fooled: if you see a texture in the black of the above two images, i can't claim anything for it. it's got some weirdness to do with the file as it uploaded... i like it, for sure, it looks great. but it was not intentional and i am not that cool. imagine them with flat black fill: that's how cool i am.)

this is a technique that a fellow art student taught me a few years ago. he called it rotoscoping, but after a little reasearch i'm not positive that's precisely what i'm doing. my technique takes a photograph and traces over it using adobe illustrator, photoshop's forgotten yet prettier sister), creating areas of color value. but, i think rotoscoping is more in reference to animation, everything from snow white to a scanner darkly, apparently, and i'm not sure what i do fits under that umbrella. the text-based one is really my little pride and joy: it actually spells "mere" from top to bottom, if you look really closely for the "r" section.

after seeing this little collection, my friend mary kate asked if could do one of her. of course! i said, just give me a little time.

more images to shake many sticks at

ta da! these images were in my digital photography final last fall.









these images were part of an assignment for the same class. we had four images to take: a panorama (mine, true to meredith form, was up and down instead of left to right), a macro (close up of an object), landscape, and a portrait. my friend chris was happy to oblige, and he took one of me in turn (see my new profile picture!)

massive photo linkage!

alright, true fans. i dare to test your loyalty. for those of you who have been aching for australia pictures since i got back, here's your chance to see them. warning: they are organized alphabetically by event (roughly) instead of chronologically because i was not about to plow through hundreds of photos that have been moved from storage device to storage device (ie. thumb drives, an ipod, a failing computer, an external hard drive, and a new computer) and figure it all out. good luck, kids!

aussome one: aquarium, aromafest, birthday, boat tour
aussome two: bondai videofest part one
aussome three: bondai videofest part two, et al
aussome four: technically, new zealand one.
aussome five: technically, new zealand two.
aussome six: technically, new zealand three AND nightwalking one
aussome seven: nightwalking two
aussome eight: the outback
aussome nine: photo excursion round one
aussome ten: photo excursion (again)
aussome eleven: traveling, random july and august
aussome twelve: random september and october
aussome thirteen: october, november, and spiro camp?
aussome fourteen: the bush, and wesley institute
aussome fifteen; the last walkabout: wesley and leichhardt life

i'll see if i can get my digital photography portfolio up in a post of their own soon.

jeremiah 29, finals, and the internship (in reverse)... and batman.

i finished my classes last week, and have passed with flying colors. i hope to get images up soon so you can see what i've been working on, but be patient with me. i have a way of not doing these things on a good timetable. (ask anyone still waiting to see my australia pictures!) i enjoyed my experience more than i thought i would-- i was pretty apprehensive about being a "Christian-liberal-arts" girl at a "secular-art" school. thankfully, people are people, and if you smile a lot they can't help but smile back at you. i am going to have spectacular laugh lines when i'm old. i don't think, though, that columbia is the right place for me to continue my education after wheaton, based on the kind of academic tracks i would try to fit into. i did, however, make friends with my professors and an academic advisor who might be able to help me find a place, or help me brainstorm ideas about what my path could look like after graduation. i am thankful for these connections and looking forward to a meeting with one such connection next week. (psst...we're looking at grad schools. don't tell.)

i started my internship this week at saatchi-- so far it's been pretty low key. there are at least twice as many people around now than there were this time last year, so the office dynamic is a bit tougher to tap into and i'm spending odd amounts of time doing odd amounts of things. i write this from the internship, if that gives you any idea as to how my time is being spent. an old office friend keeps telling me i look "lost." maybe the look on my face knows something i don't.

around high school graduation, people are quick to quote, or add to their signature in the cards they send, Jeremiah 29:11: "'for I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you, and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." this is a message of hope for me people my age everyone, hope that there is something for us to do with life. that we were selected to be where we are for a reason and meaningful purpose. but, something i read today reminded me that that's not the end of that address. it goes on to say:
"then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. you will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."

now, if my old testament class served me at all, the last part gets on about how the israelites have been exiled from their home and how the Lord will bring them back, etc., but i still like the way this interprets for my life (and that's about all i can say i have authority to interpret, if i even have that.) i need to be reminded that that plan isn't just for the Lord to cast down a blessing for the future and call it a day, but for me to turn back to Him and continue to seek Him. wholly. and He will find me. i love that. at this stage of my life, even when i'm really not sure what the future holds, i love that this promise holds true. i need to do a better job keeping up my end.



other notices!
a year ago, i was still settling into sydney. this fact is still settling into me.
i saw batman. i am still giddy about it and want to see it again.
i am so thankful for each and every one of you.