Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Back in Columbus

I am (per the title) back in columbus. 2 nights here, so far. I've moved in, my room is just less than immaculately clean, but then I would hate it if is were. Everything is reorganized and I'd forgotten how much I hate nights here. Honestly, it's even worse when Kip is busy doing stuff. I do feel ignored, but I know that despite the crying mess I turn into @ night that I'll eventually get tired and wake up with the sun in the sky. I'll be just fine.

Kip didn't answer any of my texts yesterday. I called after rehearsal and he answered. We talked for a good hour (if you can believe it, less than normal, but so it is with long distance couples). He was playing WoW (World Of Warcraft) for the majority of the time. It does bug me, but then I know what he'd be like if he didn't have that. It's something to do. It is something that is at least mentally active. Sometimes I wish that he would put that need to do something into working out, as he complains about that so much.

I suppose I'm starting to lose some of my nerve in telling him when something bothers me. I ought to, I know. I just hate thinking it might do more harm than good, and it's true that I don't know for sure that it would do that. How do I know that it would do any good either, though.

We'll have been going out for a year in 22 days. I hope things don't become so busy that it takes the rest of the semester to become engaged officially. I'm honestly very impatient about it. Why am I so impatient?

Possible reasons:

1) The year 2012 is coming up and I have no great reason to expect why that year should be any different apart from what I hear about the world maybe ending by then. I can imagine growing up and old, way past that year. There's a small, lurking fear in the back of my head, though.

2) If I had things my way, I'd leave school now, get a job (and believe you me, I would get a friggin job) and start building a savings account for crying out loud. If/when Kip gets accepted into the JET program, if there were a way, I'd go with him. I'm starting to get anxious about Japan. I was fine with it while it was so far away, but it's more and more real every day. It's stupid that we humans are sometimes fine with our own death or with a career in a dream field juuuust up until it starts to happen. Suddenly, all the things you dreamt of are in front of you and they begin to mean more and more to you. Like and opponent on a giant horse way off in the distance. Your courage is set and firm while that opponent is no more than a freckle on the horizon, but as it gallops towards you, blade outstretched, you begin to have a better understanding of just how fast he's coming on, how long that sword is, how equally deadly the horse could be if it trampled you, and how invincible the armored knight seems as his plate reflects your own fears and your own feeble existence. By the time you realize that you could run out of his way, it's too late. Beyond that, it's just a matter of what reaction you have and maintaining enough courage not to hesitate.

If Kipper's away for a year, am I afraid I'll meet someone? Honestly, there are a few guys down here that are the kind of guy I'd go after, but they aren't Kip and I've known since I met Kip that letting him just slip through my fingers would be the DUMBEST thing I'd ever do. I already did it once, and no way was it worth it. Kipper is it. It rings like the morning sun in my window. It's true and it's bright and it wraps itself around me and let's me know the night is passed. Get it? Kip is it for me.

I'm much more afraid of the better population of young, beautiful, Japanese (and, God Forbid, Japanese-Brazilian) girls. I count myself a beautiful creation on my own. I count myself rare and intelligent and with a particular gift where love is concerned. All the same, I am not the sweet, spot-less, cute Japanese ideal and I've never feared a girl more than I've feared Amy. I knew what Amy did to Will's heart while we were still together, even if he didn't. I knew Amy had a fire that made my own look like one of the hundreds of gaslights in Dublin. I know none of the girls in Japan. I know Kip almost dated one and I know that there might be a handful of girls in Japan that don't appeal to him. I know that those girls appear so fearfully beautiful to most men. I know I can't compare. I just...I mean, it pisses me off. There aren't a country of men that appeal to me that would through theirselves at me! But Japan is not safe while he's there! I mean, it's a victorian society that full of coy sweethearts that would never be too forward, but oh they'd love to make him give chase.

Do I think Kip would ever do that? I think right now, he is firmly set not to. I know he will admire those girls, and I know it will be difficult for him not to fantasize. Sickly, I wonder if it's cruel not to let him masturbate while he's there. Millions of beautiful women, me not there for months and months, what effect would that have? Ugh, I can barely listen to "Don't Stand So Close To Me." Used to love that song, when I had a crush on a teacher. It is, of course, unbearable to think of Kip as the teacher and some girl, thousands of miles away, in his class...yeah, unbearable.

It hurts to think that somehow this won't work and that God will still be there for me. It hurts to think that once I thought that Kip and I are meant to be that somehow it would all get turned on its head and suddenly I'm left with every other option but the one I really, really wanted.

These terrible thoughts... Somehow, I expect the Japan would change him and that I would no longer have the man that loves me the way he does.

God help me to be faithful, not just so far as other men are concerned, but these myriad failures of my faith break me down and hurt not only me but Kipper, my friends, my family. I can see how it bleeds and spills over.

The cup of faith is like a martini glass full of a rare oil and this world is as a tight-rope.

God help me to speak to Kip about these fears and help me to see all other things around me, too.

God help me with my classes and help me see what I need to do to graduate successfully. God, guide me elsewhere if this is not the place for me. If Budapest is what you want, help me make that happen.

Oh lord above, my honesty comes slowly with myself, let alone with those I love. You have been patient with me always and I pray that you remain so. I pray that out of these strange days I arise in your hands and fly away from here. I pray that I do not anger you, when sometimes I am sure that I have. How does one reconcile this? Lord of life and light, I am so set in my ways. I feel changes that come, and I resist them. You, oh lord, know where I am stubborn and I am sure that you would break me of these things and that you would remake me again and again. I am afraid of this. Lord, help my fears to melt away and help me to remember the Ghost story. Help me to remember the day under the pines when the sky was the rich and clear blue, the sun warm, and breeze light, and the future the brightest because you were there. Lord help me to return to you every day and help me not to stray.

Make my days yours and keep me all my days.

I love you.

Maggie.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Beginning Again

It's christmas break, having ended my 5th semester in college, and I've spent 95% of my time since then in my house. Most of my friends are at least an hour away and I am, to my detriment, without a driver's license. I didn't have it taken from me. I still have my permit, which I have renewed 3 times. I'm still afraid to drive, still afraid that I'm sure to end up in a wreck where I kill everyone and injure myself beyond repair, causing my family to pay money they don't have to those I took loved ones from. Now, is this a rational fear? Well, remotely.

Historically, I lost 3 friends within a week of each other to separate accidents. I was 15. These same accidents have, however, not impeded my little brother. He is a fantastic driver, which also makes me think that I have to make up for all the good driving in this family by being a distinctly poor one. The balance must be restored, no?

I have left myself without a license and left myself without a means to really escape my home. Undoubtedly, if I did drive and had a car, I would be out and about every day. I'd be the inconsiderate human that would dig my carbon footprint into the environment, just driving from boredom. I'd frequent shops I may/ may not buy anything from and I would surprise my friends, even those that live an hour out from me. Oh, how green the grass on the other side of my fear.

The Brilliant Fall of Sisters

Statistically, I am not 100% sure how many of the girls in the US grew up all the while being called the “smart girl.” I’m left to wonder how many of us there are and how many of us ever actually felt as though we were the “smart girl.” I hope beyond any hope that we’ve all been proven wrong before and that we’ve all had someone that beat our ass in the arena of common sense. I hope there have been times that we were only the smart girl because we knew that we had to learn, rather than because we were right.

When I was in eighth grade, I remember attending an all girl’s school and I remember the day they handed out sheets to fill out for superlatives in the coming year-book. I remember the majority of my class mates selecting me as Einstein’s daughter, though somehow I was elected “most likely to become the first female president.” That was without a doubt my favorite year of my adolescence. It was my favorite probably because I was so often respected for what everyone else seemed to classify as “brilliance” rather than picked last for a team as I watched the boy I had a crush on choose a complete ditz to talk to.

I remember that year with all my sisters and that year was well spent, though I failed out of the school that same year. I remember the friendships that I forged there and it still surprises me that there were so many girls that saw me as bright and intelligent when I could so easily say the same and moreso about any one of them.

It's an absolute folly that the smart girl is THE smart girl, and no moreso than the folly that the smart girl has to be the one that's right all the time.