Drawings Part 1

Hello again. Today I'm going to introduce you to the first of some cartoony doodles that I found. Now, stuff like this is ALL OVER my notes from class in both high school and college and depending on how tedious the lab stuff gets it will likely continue on through grad school and beyond. It's just what I do. The sides of my brain aren't really completely separate in my day-to-day life, in fact they're quite blended, which probably has something to do with the music nerdiness and the slight ambidexterity. So, don't be surprised if you're ever going through notebooks covered in ridiculous equations and find funky birds, fairies, flowers, and flames sketched in the margins and blank spots.

You can click the image to make it bigger and see it better. This is something I found from high school, I think junior year. I liked colorful pens in high school. Let's see...there's a Canadian flag, a unicorn, a phoenix, what looks to be the most non-threatening sea serpent in the world, aaaand some strange vine glowing around a blue crystal? I'm not entirely sure what that is, really. There did use to be something in the old mental drafts of Enilas where there was a rose vine around a special rock. It could be something to do with that. Ah well. Enjoy!

Personal Essay titled "Me" from AP Chem

Yes, I really am going to torture you with some old work from high school BUT I have decided not to include any more of the really, erm, shall we call them obsessive writings? Yeah I was really weird in high school, and sometimes when I think about what I wrote and what I did I'm like "dude, wtf." but hey, that's high school for ya.

So at the beginning of AP Chem Ms. Sparks was like "Okay we're going to be together for an entire year and it's gonna get really difficult so I want to get to know you." (I'm paraphrasing of course) and she had us write a little essay about how we saw ourselves and stuff. I can't remember if this was the actual copy that I turned in, because I remember that I felt kind of self-conscious about how honest I was in the essay, but this is the copy that I found in my stacks of papers. (I only put my initials in this version since it's on the INTERNETZ.)

*****

8/25/05

AP Chem

Me

I was born Diana R. G. in Vallejo, California on December 1, 1989. Shortly thereafter, by way of some sort of paperwork and my Canadian mom, I became a dual citizen of the US and Canada.

I started kindergarten in Napa at the age of 4, which I suppose explains how I'm pretty much the youngest person in the junior class.

We moved to Michigan when I was 5, but I didn't start at Saline - I actually started 1st grade in Paw Paw while we were renting a house, waiting for the old one to sell. Then just after my 6th birthday we moved over to Mattawan, where I spent about 8 years of my life. I met many fantastic teachers and people and friends, especially in middle school. It was in Mattawan that I got started with band, although I certainly never would have called myself a band nerd back then, as I do now. It was in Mattawan that I was accepted into the Academically Talented Youth Program, or ATYP, and became ridiculously smart in math. I went to a band camp for 3 summers in a row - just because some of my favorite teachers from Mattawan were leading there. But nothing's pleasant forever, and near the end of eighth grade, Pfizer bought Pharmacia (where my dad worked) and we had to move to Ann Arbor - or at least close to there.

And so my mom found Saline, and I decided to join the marching band, despite my doubts about it. And, actually, I didn't meet the friends I have now at freshman band camp. Oh, no. That happened gradually, throughout frosh + soph years. First one in CPE, who then introduced me to many others in the second semester, most of which I hung out with and got closer to at sophomore band camp and at lunch that year. I was invited to a party - more of a gathering, really - of this bunch Christmas break and ever since then I've felt like I actually fit in. Bit by bit I've gotten less shy - although I am still quite quiet around those I don't know well. I've discovered that I  warm up quickly to people who are friendly but with a great sense of humor. I like to laugh.

My closest friends have convinced me to stay in Marching Band, and to join Pep Band and Girl Scouts. Now I'm considering joining Quiz Bowl when it starts up again, meanwhile I'm wondering how to manage with all this stuff and homework.

Well, there's my life; but as for my personality - not so long a tale. I like to laugh. I love hanging out with my friends. I like chocolate and many other sweets. I'm not as intelligent as some think me to be. I procrastinate, though I know I shouldn't. Shiny things excite me, and I'm even a bit of a pyro. I'm an only child, and I have two pets: a brainless but adorable mutt named Bobo, and a mischievious black cat named October. I'm a fan of almost anything relating to Harry Potter, Queen, Monty Python, marching band, or Lewis Black. Also, I like almost every sort of music - except heavy metal and most country.

Finally, the only time I want all eyes on me is if I'm talking with my closest friends. I hate being put on the spot - truly I have no leadership skills at all, even though all the institutions seem to think that if you get good grades and take honors classes, you're a leader. (Both some national fancy leadership conference and NHS tried to get me.) So why did I join Girl Scouts? Because my friends wanted me to, and I wanted to be included - I don't like being left out. That may seem contradictory to what I said above, but it's not. I don't like being in the spotlight; I don't like being left out. I prefer to stay hidden in the crowd - a bit like marching band, actually, and I am quite a band nerd.

*****

So yeah. There's that. Honestly I feel like my vision of myself hasn't changed all that much. Well, maybe it has, but that's still kind of a good summary, except now I also have a goofy golden retriever named Iris, and I've been dating an awesome guy that I love for long enough that I've stopped keeping track and have to think about it every time someone asks me...oh, and I graduated from a big university tons of people have heard of with a degree in super-nerdiness...hehe, I mean engineering...oh, and I'm going off to grad school in Amherst, MA in the fall (eep!). The activities have changed, and stuff has happened, and maybe I'm a little less quiet, but that's still pretty much me. 

Explanations

I want to explain something about the story in my head, particularly the adult characters within it. I usually describe the story as something like "well, it's like me and a bunch of my friends and our kids with kick-ass magical powers in a fantasy world with all sorts of creatures and stuff." I want to make clear that the characters are really only vaguely based off of people I know, and as the characters have developed, some of them have diverged quite a bit from what I thought they would be.

John Green says that in order to understand someone we have to imagine them complexly. I have part of that in the story when one of the minstrels is talking about how he finds stories - he talks about how he has to change the descriptions of people to fit what people want, and also about how many versions of the same person might be featured in several different stories, each story portraying them in a different light, but no story being completely honest about who the person really is. You see, really it's impossible that I could portray any of my friends accurately in a story especially when I'm not that great of a writer. As I meet people and get to know them, I develop an idea of what they're like, a kind of mental projection of their personality. However, this projection is usually flawed somewhat, imperfect and incomplete. Not that it's bad, I just don't usually see the whole picture. These pictures got extrapolated and transformed into the basic forms that the characters started off as. But as the story develops, the character details grow and diverge from that original basic form. At this point, I feel that I need to find names for all the characters ASAP, as I'm no longer comfortable calling the characters by the name of the person they may have vaguely resembled at one time. It used to be difficult to try to call a similar mental image by a different name, but now that the characters have diverged from the people, it's easy.

And the kids? The kids are all their own deal, though some of those kick-ass magical powers I mentioned earlier are similar to those of their parents. :)

Now if only I could come up with last names...