Dear Joanne,
I loved your most recent blog posts of life updates! When we blog to each other, we get to see specific things from little parts of each other’s lives, but often still miss some daily things or the big picture (for example, you didn’t realize I’d gotten a job until I posted about it on social media, and I didn’t know you’d started work in your friend’s store until FaceTime just a few nights ago… and the mention of it in your life update post! Yet these are things that take up lots of time in our daily lives!).
This is a blog post in response to your blog post!
- On driving: This excerpt you gave on your experience of driving:
“On first few days of me driving them, they could not let their hands go from handles attached to the top of the car while they were telling me, ‘you’re doing great job, Joanne!'”
…made me laugh so hard. Thank you for sharing that funny little story Joanne. I can truly imagine this scene happening and it makes me chuckle every time.
2. It it totally fair for you to acknowledge the potential bias in your Enneagram results from your prior knowledge of the test. I smiled when I read that too because it reminded me of the days we used to suffer in AP stats together… but I think Ms. Kouwe would be proud to see us putting our learning to use!
(speaking of AP stat, Payton made me laugh the other day when we brought up the memory of us dropping 30 pieces of peanut butter spread bread on the ground in HH! good times, lololol).
But back to the enneagram… That totally makes sense girl. I totally see you as a Two. I know it’s common for girls– especially Christian girls, as Rachael pointed out to me– to be Twos, but I really do see those Helper characteristics in you! You engage not only is far more service projects than the typical person does, but even in your daily life you are considerate and helpful.
I also know how much you are energized by the people around you (seeing as I’ve known you now for six years!), and so I can only imagine how tough it is to be alone over the whole summer. I’m happy for you now that you’re back in Rochester surrounded by your Eco Fellows and your crew team! How good!
And speaking of being with your team, I now get to respond to point 3 from your letter on working out.
3. Your post mentioned how you’d be able to run in the mornings, and today I was fortunate to receive one of my FAVORITE pieces of media ever: your trademark “on a run, sending to Marian” videos! I watched it with my teammate on our way to breakfast after long run and it truly made me so happy. It filled me with so much joy to hear your voice and hear you talk during your run. I’m stoked that you’re running and actually extremely honored that you take the time to send me a video whenever you run, just because the action reminds you of me. Seeing your video also took me back to last school year when you would occasionally send these, because the specific feeling of amusement and joy it evoked was completely identical, even months later.
4. Books: YES! Malcolm Gladwell is awesome! I read his book Blink about split-second conclusions and intuition before entering AP Lang in junior year and loved it. If you want to hear more of this author’s thoughts, I actually had a podcast recommended to me by my good friend Trey that Gladwell Hosts, called Revision is History. I haven’t yet had the chance to check it out, but if you do, please let me know what you think of it!
I have heard of Traveling Light and will add it to my never-ending list of books to read :D. If we’re lucky I’ll get the chance to confront it this year! :)
I just (“just” as in, an hour ago) began reading The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. I’m only on page three but already I know I’m going to like this book. Hemingway is very funny and amusing in the way he describes his characters. My sarcasm radar isn’t very good, but even I can see when he’s being funny and I really appreciate that about him.
5. It has been more than nine days since you published the post I am responding to right now. So now you’re back at college! So am I chica! I have quite a lot to say about my own experience on this one, so I’ll probably save that for another post (stay tuned) that I’ll write up another time. But as far as your situation goes: Welcome back! I’m happy to know we’re on the same continent once again :) It’s comforting, and also makes my mental calculations to figure out our time change a lot easier.
6. Congrats on the change of major! I’m excited for you, and your desire to become a nurse also really seems to align with your Type 2 Helper personality :) . Of course environmental science is a service to the world, but hospital settings are far more personal and will, I think, be very fulfilling for you as a Helper!
7. Congrats on the summer job! I totally get what you mean about not making loads of money but being happy to have work nonetheless. I think it takes away some spending guilt when you know you’ve earned at least a little bit of what’s coming out of your pocket :). It also is a good learning experience, makes you feel productive, and gets you out of the house because, if you’re anything like me, time spent at home too often translates to “time wasted on meaningless social media and twitter.” I’m glad you got to work, even if just for a bit.
Hoanne Le-eh, I am so happy you’re back in the US again, even just because it means you’re closer to me, you’re “sista sistaaa.” I miss you so much but another good thing is that we’re both super busy once again thanks to being back at school and so that means missing our friends doesn’t have to come with quite as much pain.
Also chica, if I’m remembering correctly, I believe this post wraps up our ten-week blogging challenge. If we include this one, it means I have only written for our challenge 5 out of ten times, which does mean that I’m losing about $20 from this competition… (more actually, since most of the posts that I wrote were uploaded past the deadline!). But even so, this money loss aside, these 5 posts that I’ve put up are 5 more than I might have otherwise done if not forced out of my comfort zone! This project has kept me productive and at least somewhat mentally sharp over the summer, and it’s also kept us in really good touch! Thank you for taking this challenge up with me and being so diligent about it. I’ve loved everything you’ve had to say and shared on your blog. it’s truly been a pleasure, chica!
Love you and miss you and hope the rest of august treats you well!
Love,
Marian.
(PS:… it is possible that our last post is next week, in which case… stay tuned and disregard my conclusion paragraph for another week! haha. It’s like saying goodnight at the door to the restaurant only to realize you and a friend are parked next to each other in the lot… we may or may not be walking toward that metaphorical lot right now? so don’t take this conclusion too seriously :)).
The More the Marianer 