A little inspiration...

A lot of times when people ask me what I'm in school for and I tell them speech pathology, they have either a tiny idea of what that means or no idea at all. I remember one time a girl said fairly condescendingly"...so what would you even do with that?" I didn't mean to be too snarky but I just replied, "Uhm, be a speech pathologist." (Duh.)

For those that have a slight idea of what falls under the umbrella of speech pathology, the only thing they think of is "helping kids talk." But it is SO much more than that. Last night me and some of my speechie girls got together for dinner and sat down to watch the 20/20 story about the progress Congresswoman Giffords is making, with the help of some very talented SLPs. That's speech-language pathologists ;-) It certainly got us even more excited about our studies and gave us the extra push to finish this semester out strong.

I promise you won't regret the time you spend watching this. It's more than a story about speech, it's her triumph and will to fight against odds. I don't know how anyone can watch this and not be moved in some way. It's a beautiful story.

If you can't watch the whole thing, at least watch the last 10 minutes.

http://abc.go.com/watch/2020/SH559026/VD55153303/gabby-giffords--mark-kelly-courage-and-hope

Sorry for being MIA!

Yall. This grad school thing? Intense. I promise I will try to post more so don't go and abandon me. But I also just found out that I have mono, so that's going to leave me with even less engery. In honor of Halloween, why don't I just leave you with this picture of me and my dog Osi, dressed in her pumpkin outfit last year. :-)

I live in the mountains.

This means that if I don't take advantage of the fact that I have an endless number of beautiful mountain trails to explore in the next two and a half years, then I have cheated myself out of some amazing memories and beautiful views.

This past Saturday, my friend Peggy and I went to a local bar here to watch the Carolina-Auburn game (no I don't want to talk about it...) and got to talking about how random lucky it is that we live where we do at this point in our lives. Upon first moving here to this small town nestled between two mountain ranges, all I could think of was "Wow, this is a small town in the middle of nowhere. There is nothing to do." Yeah, yeah, I know. Negative Nancy. But I was so wrong. I could go hiking in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains every weekend for the next 2.5 years and I still won't have seen it all. But by golly I'm going to try!


Peggy found our first destination, Graveyard Fields. October 1 really ushered in the quintessential autumn weather and the trees here are just starting to turn. It was a beautiful weekend, albeit a little chilly. We set out following the signs that pointed us towards Upper Falls and it was definitely worth it. And the views are amazing. We hope to go every weekend and see how the leaves change to deeper reds, yellows, and oranges, and finally when they all go bare.

If you look close, you can see me standing next to the waterfall.

 

The best part.

Sometimes, the best part of my day is this:

The A-Z of me.

Everyone seems to have jumped on this bandwagon in the blogosphere. So here it goes...

A. Age: 22
B. Bed size: Queen
C. Chore that you hate: Scrubbing the tub

D. Dogs: I have one temperamental chow with a princess complex, Osita (little bear, in Spanish)... we call her Osi and I like to say she got her attitude problem from her Daddy ;-)

E. Essential start to your day: Coffee. Coffee. Coffee.

F. Favorite color: Grey.

G. Gold or Silver: Silver.

H. Height: 5’6” 
I. Instruments you play: None.  But I learned the violin in 4th grade.
J. Job title: Full time graduate student.
K. Kids: Just the canine.

L. Live: In the Smokey Mountains of western North Carolina.
M. Mother’s name: Linda
N. Nicknames: Laur, Margaret
O. Overnight hospital stays: One, when they thought my appendix was about to burst but really I just had some stuff growing in my stomach. No big.
P. Pet peeves: Drivers who don't use their blinker at the right time, not following through.

Q. Quote from a movie: "Oh yes, the past can hurt. But, you can either run from it or learn from it." -The Lion King, Rafiki
R. Right or left handed: Right. 
S. Siblings: My sister, Katie. She's 25 and lives in ATL.
U. Underwear: Optional. 
V. Vegetable you hate: Brussel sprouts!

W. What makes you run late: Hitting the snooze button too many times, Osi playing hard to catch outside when I'm trying to bring her in.

X. X-Rays you’ve had: Lungs when I denied I was sick but actually had pneumonia.

Y. Yummy food that you make:  Cookies, pies, brownies, cakes, italian porkchops, etc. 
Z. Zoo animal: Elephants.

my true life.

Tidbits [3]

A book you love:

"It's the tragedy of loving, you can't love anything more than something you miss."

I have never been the kind to read for pleasure. If I was reading a book, it was because I was going to be tested on it in school. And I may or may not have mostly sparknoted my way through high school. It was never something I enjoyed.

"...sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all of the lives I'm not living."

I can't tell you the number of books I have picked up with good intentions to read from cover to cover. So, naturally, the first book I got through cover to cover was one I loved. And the one I'm going to share with yall. It remains my absolute favorite (and yes I have gotten through other books since then!)

"Every moment before this one depends on this one."

quotes from: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

The very basic gist of it is this: it's about a 9 year old boy who searches New York for the lock that matches the mysterious key left by his father when he was killed in the attacks of September 11. I can't tell  you how touching of a story it is. I implore you to consider picking it up!

"There were things I wanted to tell him. But I knew they would hurt him. So I buried them, and let them hurt me."

It has been made into a movie that is being released sometime next year with Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, and John Goodman to name a few. But I just can't wrap my head around how they can convey this book as a movie and do it justice.

"I like to see people reunited, maybe that's a silly thing, but what can I say, I like to see people run to each other, I like the kissing and the crying, I like the impatience, the stories that the mouth can't tell fast enough, the ears that aren't big enough, the eyes that can't take in all of the change, I like the hugging, the bringing together, the end of missing someone..."