• For you personally, what makes today worth living?
text-chatting with the BFF. Seeing my friend Joe while he works on the basement bathroom renovation. Dinner with my parents. Refocusing on the job search.
• What have you done in the last year that makes you proud?
sold a slew of things I'd thought I couldn't live without.
It's kind of a funny process. I started by selling the things that I didn't want. Then I went back through and picked out the things I could live without. Now that I'm completely without income, it's been surprisingly easy to go back through, again, and split off the things that can get elsewhere, that I've enjoyed "enough," or that, frankly, will fetch a good price if/when they sell.
• What did you learn recently that changed the way you live?
I learned that I will need to take out a surprisingly large amount of student loans, which had the result of cutting back in any other area possible. I can live simply and inexpensively when I put my mind to it, and I'm there now. Unfortunately, other circumstances conspired to make the return to school impossible at this time. I will try again after this term, or possibly in the fall, if I can work it out.
• What is your fondest memory from the past three years?
it's a sort of composite memory, of quiet weekends at home with the kitty and their custodial parent
• What are the primary components of a happy life?
exercise, good sleep, and a clear conscience
• How would the world be different if you were never born?
the world would be less sarcastic, thoughtful, and polka-dotted without me
• With the resources you have right now, what can you do to bring yourself closer to your goal?
thinking about this question makes me gag. I'm so totally not a goal-oriented person. Even thinking about the things I enjoy, like walking for health or going to school or reading - I don't do them for the goal that's implied, but for the sake of the things themselves. I don't care how far or fast I walk. I don't care (beyond the financial aspect) how long it takes for me to get through school, or even how objectively well I perform. And I don't read to get through a number of pages or a number of volumes, but simply for the joy of reading in itself.
• What are your top three priorities?
1. Get healthy eyeballs so I can go back to wearing contacts. I loathe wearing glasses all the time!
2. Find a source of income. Harder than it seems!
3. Eat actual food, more often than not. The holidays and some emotional upheaval sent me into a spiral of weird eating, meals at odd times of day and strange food choices. I really, really need to get into the positive habits again!
• Why do we idolize sports players?
because it's lovely to see someone who's especially good at something do that thing. They typically enjoy it, too, which makes watching it even better. It's the same with musicians, or actors. I think we all want to absorb some of that passion, and the joy of finding our 'thing'.
• What makes you angry?
containers that are difficult to open. Fruit that spoils too quickly. Slippery sidewalks.
• What is the nicest thing someone has ever done for you?
a library friend offered to help pay for a trip home when I was incredibly homesick but low on cash. She told me flat out that it was not a loan but a gift. There was no argument, no hat-in-hand request, and no guilt. The money was nice, and the sentiment even better.
• Do you have houseplants, and if so do you have a favorite?
lately, I've been intrigued by my spider plants. I have a standard dark green vertical one (actually two) that were scavenged from a friend's overgrown monster. They are doing well enough that I think they're ready to be re-potted from the tiny pots they've been in. And I have a variegated curly-leaf model that's going gangbusters in the three pots where it's been split.
[from here; the title quotation is by Charles M. Schulz]
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