In the Last Four Years

So, I am officially less than a month away from graduating college with a bachelors degree in English and blah blah blah you don't care. Okay, so, let's talk some about the college experience. Actually, that sounds boring, too, so... I'm going to mostly just give you pictures and short descriptions of memories. But before I do that, I'll intro it a little better than this.

So, there were a lot of shitty things about my college experience. I had relationships with people who made me feel small and stupid and worthless. I spent a year in a foggy haze of sadness, battling weeks of depression and waiting for the three-days-of-relief in between. Some of my friends went through some really horrible stuff. But that's life, right? Really terrible things happen. People you care about really hurt you. Sometimes you really have to force yourself to get out of bed. So, the point is, there's some shit you have to deal with. But there are also some really spectacular times, moments, and things. (Ugh, so vague, my advisor would be so mad at me if she read this.) The point is, there are a lot of good things about life. There have been a lot of good things about my college experience. And sometimes when I start to think thank goodness this is almost done it has been hell I have to remind myself that there have also been a lot of good times. And, honestly, I'm very thankful for the majority of my college experiences.

Okay, boring introduction finished. Now, here are some things I enjoyed about college:

Jacob drew a picture of me as a magician
to make amends for the fact that I was
NEVER a magician in his dreams.

• My freshman year of college, Nash was going to the same school as me. Especially during the second semester, almost every night Nash, Renee, Jacob and I would go to Starbucks to do homework. Renee would, for chunks of time, abandon our table because we were distracting. Nash and Jacob one time wrote a bunch of scripts for a webseries based on our conversations. I just remember that, in one, Nash impaled himself with a pen and in another I gave Renee my purity ring so that I could go do not-so-pure things. Anyway, those were good times.

Nash being proud that the barista drew a cat on his coffee cup.

I was looking for pictures from the excursion or whatever
but I think must have lost them. So, this is from when I visited
her this past February.

• My sophomore year of college, Nash had left school. And for various other reasons, there were a lot less instances of group study trips to Starbucks. But, my lovely friend, Dani, and I would go get ice cream late at night a lot. Also, one time we went on this excursion of sorts, where we made up different identities for each other and went around pretending to be different people. 

• My freshman year, I took this Theater Appreciation class with Nash and Renee. (Side story about the first day of class: earlier in the day I had Women and Lit. One of the kids in my class called our professor "Ms." and she went on a little rant about being called either "Dr." or "Professor." I saw her again as Nash, Renee, and I were leaving Theater Appreciation. Immediately, Renee goes, "AMY!" and runs up to talk to her. It was... sitcom timing. She wasn't mad, though. It's impossible to be mad at Renee. Renee is the kindest/sweetest person alive.) Anyway, basically everything about Theater Appreciation was fun because Nash and Renee were there. We did group projects together! We watched The Man Who Came to Dinner. We were of the only five people who would do the improv games as anything other than "intoxicated" characters.

  

  Renee as one of the fairies from Midsummer Night's Dream.

• During spring break of my... when was it? Freshman? Sophomore? I think sophomore... year of college, my mom and I went to Columbia and stayed with my uncle, then we went to Springfield and stayed with my aunt. While we were in Columbia we got to see Matt Nathanson in concert. Also, mom braided my hair and we went to a pet store to hold bunnies. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Twice, I've taken mini-road trips to visit my best friend, Alli. The first time, shortly after I arrived we went to a rap concert. Which is a little weird, I have to admit. Also, I was so exhausted from driving, and it was pretty late at night, that despite the fact that it was super loud, I fell asleep. Then we went to eat pancakes. The second time, I stayed for a couple nights. We went to a fall festival at her school. She had to leave at one point to do sorority stuff, so her roommates and I went to get pizza. Anyway, good times. She's the best. 
• ALSO, this past February I went to visit my aunt. I wrote a blogpost about that, so, you might remember it. One thing that was nice about that, was it snowed and then I got to skip all of my Monday classes.
• Once, sophomore year, Renee asked me if I'd be free on Saturday to go on a picnic. Then, I guess she forgot that she asked, 'cause Thursday and Friday she was all giggly, like, "I HAVE A SURPRISE PLANNED FOR TOMORROW!!!" The surprise was a picnic. Renee's a goof. I love her so much.
• I won the playwright award for our school's literary magazine two years in a row. I also won Mock Trial Student of the Year, once. Also, I won some super secret excellence in English award. I also was president of the English, and then Spanish-English club, two years in a row. ...That bit wasn't really "fond memories." It was mostly just bragging. 
• I went to the Kansas City Slut Walk. Nobody went with me, and it was after a shitty week of depression, and some of the friends that I invited and didn't go with me, went to the gym instead, and that really irked me. Also, it was kind of rainy and humid that day. But, now that it's a bit later, I can just think fondly of the fact that I went, you know? 
  
• Nash invented "coffee house games" and throughout the past few years, we occasionally have coffee house game nights. So, a handful of people will get together and we'll all lay different writing games. We've gone to coffee houses, cafes, and just thrown parties in people's livingrooms. It's so much fun. You can read some of the products of these games here.
• Usually, I hang out with the church folk more often during the summers. Which is fun. I like helping out at, like, VBS. One summer, I did an internship for Coldwater, which is the nonprofit run out of my church. Also, we sometimes go on a cool retreats.v

  

  A whole slew of us lovely church ladies rockin' the same hairstyle.

• Speaking of church retreats... My freshman year of college, I went with the youth on a retreat. And I had so much fun. I felt comfortable refusing to participate in any ridiculous scaling-building or falling-off-poles exercises. I wrote "Kat is Pretty" on basically everyone's forearm. And... I'm actually not quite sure what else happened that weekend. I mean, I have a lot of memories, but we went there so many times that I'm having difficulty differentiating trips. 
  

• My Freshman year, I started a youtube channel. And I have had so much fun youtubing.  

This is my first ever youtube video. So. Yeah. Enjoy or whatever.

• Remember how I said that I saw Matt Nathanson perform in concert? Well, that was super exciting because he's one of my favorite musicians. And I've also had the pleasure of seeing Frightened Rabbit and Mountain Goats in concert, which is cool, because they are two of my favorite bands! Plus, Nash. Nash is one of my favorite musicians (not just because he's my brother, either) but I'm basically always hearing him perform live. 
• Related: two or three times we've hosted house concerts. I always really enjoy those. Once, I made vegan brownies. Which didn't taste like brownies. They just tasted odd. 
• Also, I hosted a release party for Nash's second album. (I say "I hosted" because I fixed all the food and it was on our back deck, but, I suppose technically Nash brought and set up the sound equipment. Plus he's the one who released the album.) It was great, we had loads of friends and family come out. 
• This past year, I also had the pleasure of meeting two of my favorite authors, John Green and Rainbow Rowell. I wrote a blogpost about that, too. Can I just say: Rainbow Rowell is crazy beautiful, you guys. We were standing in line, waiting for her to show up, and when we saw her walking up, my mind totally blanked on everything other than she is so pretty, she is so, so pretty. Also, when I met John Green I was pretty incapable of saying anything because I just kept thinking this is weird, he really exists.

  

  Me and RAINBOW FREAKING ROWELL

  

  Here it looks like I'm talking to John Green, but in reality he's saying,
  "Thanks for coming out" and I'm just staring at him.

• Renee and I went on a quest during my junior year of college. We went to coffee shops and walked around the city and scoured an antiques shop to find letters. I think we went to three coffee shops in total. IN ONE OUTING. That's ridiculous. But I love it. 
• Once, my sophomore year, Renee and I talked about how neither of us had been on a "real" date before. So, we decided we would go on a date together. We dressed up, got coffee, lunch, and ice cream. It was so much fun. 
• My freshman year, Alli came and stayed with me one weekend. The next morning, Nash, Renee, Jacob, Alli, and I went to one of my favorite breakfast places in the Metro, Simply Breakfast. We had a good time while we were there, and then we all wrote notes and drew pictures for the waitress. We left them with the tip. 

• During my sophomore year of college, I learned how to make sock bunnies. When spring came, I threw a Spring Tea Party. I invited my guests by putting invitations in hollowed out and painted egg shells (where they would have to crack them in order to get the invitation) in little origami boxes. Everyone who came got a sock bunny as a party favor. (Then, everyone stuffed them in their shirts and we called it a "boobs and bunnies" party.)
  
  
  
• Speaking of parties, I actually threw a handful of tea parties during my first two years at school. My freshman year, on Halloween, my friend, Charlotte, and I threw a zombie tea party, which was fun. The next year, I just threw a run-of-the-mill tea party for Halloween.

Nikki and I at the Zombie Tea Party

These losers didn't wear costumes. 

• One time, my brother and I participated in Search Out Hunger. It was a scavenger hunt that rose money and awareness(?) for a Back Snack program that sends weekend meals home with kids on free and reduced lunch programs. (I'm not actually 100% sure if my info is right here. It might have, instead, been to help fund a food pantry which provides people in need with free groceries a few times in the month.) Anyway, we were supposed to dress like heroes, so Nash and I went as Oscar Wilde and Charlotte Bronte. So, we took some artistic liberties with that assignment. 
• This past Halloween, I had a lot of work to do for my senior thesis. But, I took a brief break from it to go with Nash to our friend Liz's party. He went as hipster!Link and I went as Robin. We played jenga and watched people play... beer pong? I think. Then, we had to leave early, and I had to stay up until about 1:00 in the morning working on my thesis. But, it was fun. So, it was worth it.
• In July of 2012, I threw a Princess Party! It wasn't for my birthday, but also it kind of was. Everyone (but Nash) came dressed as some form of royalty. All of our refreshments were related to one royal or another (mostly Disney princesses, if I remember correctly). It was fun. Really fun. 

• That year, the day after my birthday, I celebrated National Lumberjack Day with some of my friends. We wore flannel shirts and ate pancakes. My friend, Ben, gave Alli and I fishtail braids. 
• Shortly after National Lumberjack Day, I went with a group of friends to see Step Up... 3? 4? Whichever one came out that year. It was good. I like the Step Up movies.
• Last semester, the Spanish English Club hosted an open mic night. I recited some poetry, Nash played some music, and one of my friends (Alden) dynamically read the first few pages of Hugh Laurie's novel. In the end, we all did improv until crazy-late. It was a lot of fun.

Nash and Jacob performing "Finger Stains"
(like the jackasses that they are)

Alden... has issues with gravity? I can't really remember
why he was ballet dancing. I think it had something to do
with clouds, though.

• Last year, at the Sound and Fury release party, each of the "winners" were supposed to read their submission out loud. When it was my turn, they offered, "I guess you could read one of your poems instead..." but there were only two main characters in my play, so... Nash read the male part, Renee read the female part, and I read all the other characters and the stage directions. I had forgotten, but there were, like, seven other small roles, so I had to employ several different voices. 
• When Renee was getting close to graduating, I started hanging out with her all the time. One time, a bunch of her friends went to her apartment to hang out while she was packing. They were all so cool. I can't even describe it, really. We weren't doing much. Just calling dibs on the sweatpants and t-shirts she was having to leave behind. But it was one of my favorite days. 
• I worked as a cashier with this guy, Barry, and he was the coolest old guy. He would asked me if I had a boyfriend, and accused me of lying when I said I didn't. After that, he asked what I thought about almost every young man who I sold books to. Also, he asked what I thought about several of the guys we worked with. (The first time we worked with one guy, he was training, and when he went to break, Barry goes, "What do you think of him?" And I was like, "He seems smart, he'll get the ha--" and he interrupts, "Boyfriend material?") He's hilarious. 
• My sophomore year, I went to a Scott Pilgrim vs. The World screening with my friend, Liz. She went as Kim Pine and I went as Roxie Richter.

There are so many other things I could include. I have about 10,000 wonderful things that I could say about my classes this semester alone. My freshman year, I had a writing class with a really eccentric teacher who, as a metaphor for "thinking outside of the box" drew a line on the wall above the dry erase board. Then, he fell back with an expression of shock and panic. It was hilarious. I have tons of good memories with my dog, Jubilee, from these past few years. I discovered the pleasure of going to movies alone. My mom and I went to see Veronica Mars. I'm not positive but... I think Alli, her mom, and I went to see Little House on the Prairie: The Musical within the past four years... no, actually, that was probably when I was in high school... but that was a hysterically bizarre production. My freshman year, there was a group of about five of us who ate breakfast together almost every day. Nash, Nikki, and I went to a murder mystery party. I wrote two novels. Shitty novels, but, still. 

So, there are a tons of other things that I could include. But, let's be honest, this has already been a crazy long blogpost. But then, it has been like four years. That's a lot of time, yo. The point is... there are good things in there. I know so many fabulous people now. I had so much fun. I dressed up on so many non-Halloween days. Yeah, I had a ton of work to do. I had some difficult times. But, man, there were so many spectacular moments. 

"thinking outside the box"