Six More Days

I still have one (open note, open book) final left, but for the most part my college career is over. I turned in my last ever undergrad paper today and walked back to my apartment to do laundry.

Six more days.

It seems like a long time to wait, sitting in my room, hanging out with my friends, eating at our college town's finest. But in a lot of ways, it's not enough time.

Six days to meet up with favorite professors, one last time. Six days to see the people who populated my time at DePauw. Six days to visit each academic building one last time. Six days to hit up all the bars (all four of them) in Greencastle.

One of my friends signed a lease for her apartment today. Another found an apartment and is applying for jobs. Two friends finished their senior seminar projects. One came back after sending her fiancé to his first day of work. We're already adulting. College is basically over.

Six days to tell everyone how much they've meant to me. Six days to walk over to my friend's house because she lives just across campus. Six days to see everyone in person, without plans.

Six days left of being a college student.

See you on Sunday.

Leeann

The Last First Day

My best friends Jordan and Hattie posing with me for our Last First DAy of School photo.

I've grown up going to school. My life has been organized based on class and breaks, basketball games and social functions, homework and tests. The three years I spent not at school are long forgotten in my mind, and were still spent learning--albeit how to eat, walk, and talk.

Yesterday was my last first day of school, the last time I start a fresh batch of classes with new school supplies and books in hand. I had mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I love the first class. Fresh paper, a new syllabus, writing everything in my planner, getting exciting over course material--the first day reminds me why I like school and learning so much.

But it also reminded me how, at least for now, this is the last time I get to learn for the sake of learning. Anything I want to know about colonial America I need to learn now. Any pieces of writing I want multiple people to critique needs to be written and read this semester.

A lot is uncertain about life after May. I might go back to school one day; I might not. This is the semester to participate to the fullest in class discussions, read every assignment, write the things I've always wanted to. 

It's scary and sad to think I'm leaving college behind. But it's also incredibly exciting to think of all I can do in the time I have left.

Leeann

Best Planner for 2015-2016?

It's that time of year again... the time of year when I agonize over what planner to buy!

My issue this year is slightly different... do I keep using my Lilly Pulitzer agenda until it ends in December or get a new planner now? It's a great planner, but boy is it huge.

I'm very specific in my needs- calendar view followed by a horizontal weekly view divided on two pages. With enough room to write all my tasks for each day.

I'm demanding.

While thinking about that, I found a few options for this year's (senior year!) replacement I thought I would share with all of you. I'll probably also pursue the aisles of Target and Paper Source to see if anything catches my eye and to see some of these in person. I think the Lilly one is still winning...

1. Everyday 17-month Planner, Rifle Paper Co., $34
2. Large Agenda- Wild Confetti, Lilly Pulitzer, $28
3. 2016 Agenda Book in Katalina Blues, Vera Bradley, $25
4. 2015-2016 Weekly Planner: 12 Month Academic, Ninj & Ninj, $30

Which one do you like the best? What planner are you using this year?

Leeann

On Location | Indiana State Library

For the past couple of weeks, I've been researching and editing a history paper about Indiana Quakers and slavery I wrote last semester for an upcoming competition. My research led me to the Indiana State Library last Thursday, where I sat down with a letter from Levi Coffin and every Indiana Yearly Meeting Minutes record I could ever want. For three and a half hours I sat in a hard-backed wooden chair and poured over those minutes, thinking about the people who created them 180 years ago. A man across the aisle from me looked at several large maps intently, and stacks of other documents waited in the wings inside climate controlled rooms and drawers.

It's a beautiful thing, hundreds of documents waiting to be read by some twenty-first century person who prefers paper to pixels.