Last days, minutes, and seconds of summer.
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Hello Marginaliers, I’m ready to share my experiences with you this semester as I continue the MAT program at Columbia College in Art Education. I hope within the following semester you can get a taste of what it’s like to belong to Cohort 21 and get a feel for the experiences and opportunities we partake in along the way. But before we begin again very shortly, please heed my advice in the following post:
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Squeeze in the last few weeks of summer! Cherish it, photograph it, eat it, drink it, soak in the sun, wade in the water and sweat it out your pores. This is what I am trying to do before an ever more rigorous semester will be coming my way this fall. Though we had two summer classes to tackle in June and July at Columbia, August is free and clear. While trying to take care of errands I never got to, making dentist appointments and the like, I planned a last minute road trip to the east and visited Nashville, Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains. And even more last minute, I decided to camp in the Smokies instead of renting a cushy cabin in order to really leave it all behind and get some ‘r and r’ in nature.
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Though summer was busy with a balance of work, school, family and some fun, I always feel that a vacation or a getaway to somewhere different becomes a capstone to summer. It seals the deal and helps you feel accomplished, refreshed, adventuresome, and ready for the next season and the future it brings. Sometimes I equate the entire month of August to the entire twenty-four hours of Sundays. They are relaxing. They are an opportunity to sleep in, to go a bit slower. They are a day to travel somewhere else, celebrate with a dinner, a birthday, a family member, etc. They are for spending time with others and taking a moment to enjoy an activity you may have not had time to stop for during the rest of the week. BUT…on the other hand…Sunday evening is for preparation. It is for planning out what is coming ahead of you. Sunday evening is for cleaning up, organizing and hitting the ball running Monday morning. They can be bittersweet.
Cohort 21 will be taking seven graduate credit hours this semester, encompassing three different graduate classes and including weeks of observation at our cooperating schools where will be student teaching at this spring. So before August is gone, and the leaves are turning…squeeze in the last few days of summer! Cherish it, photograph it…