In My Head

If you were to empty the contents of my brain, the following points reflect some of the thoughts therein.  These are things I have recently heard from people, things I've been thinking about for years, events that have lately transpired, etc.  My journal writing habits have taken a turn for the worse since I started my program at OSU, and even though we still take lots of photos, I don't want to look back on this year and crave words when I only see images.  So here we go - some things that one Kristen K is thinking about in 2013:

1)  Diversity is good.

We went out to dinner last night and had thirty minutes to kill before being seated.  What did we do?  We put the buzzer in our pocket and hit up the Indian grocery store right next door, of course!  Why?  We love a good meal of chicken tikka or korma every once in while and thought we'd take a spin through the aisles to find something fun and different to try.  More importantly though, we pushed Bug through the grocery store in the hope that she will notice and become familiar with people who don't look like her, and likely do not believe what she does, speak like she does, or think like she does - and that is just fine.  Steve started up a conversation with a nice Indian family and by the end of our store experience, we made three new friends and crossed a little further over the bridge spanning a cultural gap in an effort to raise a well-rounded and accepting kid.  Those twenty minutes also made us realize (as experiences like this tend to do) that we want to live outside of the United States again - and soon.  My brother tells us that we are gypsies who can't stay in one place for too long.  True story.

2) Know the difference.

This is courtesy of a woman who visited our ward last week and shared her testimony to a room full of women.  The gist of her message was this - there is a difference between being active in the church and being active in the gospel, and it's only the latter that matters.  I thank that dear woman for sharing a simple yet profound lesson with me.

3) Public radio rocks.

One of my favorite aspects of each day is when I come home and get to spend time with Steve and the Bug and we catch up on the events of the day, including what we each heard on public radio during our commutes.  We're on the road at different times and catch different broadcasts, so it's always fun to hear each other's take on the local/national/world events as reported on public radio.  Bug has yet to contribute...

4) Making friends as a married couple is akin to dating.

This is one I've been thinking about for years as a direct result of the time I've spent watching friends find spouses and start their married adventures together, but it even applies to meeting new couples as we go through life.  You invite couples over for dinner or to different events and discover throughout the course of said event whether or not you, as a couple, hit it off with the other couple.  Sounds weird, but you know what I'm talking about right?!  It's the dating game.  The golden relationships are when you and your spouse hit it off with both of the other people, not just one of them.  Those are the keepers.  It's been interesting to see how friendships change/morph/strengthen/weaken over the years as more people are added to the party.  In conclusion, this is what I'm trying to say: the quality of the friendship is directly proportional to the relationship I have with the added spouse.  If I was friends with the wife prior to the marriage and think the husband is really cool, the friendship becomes so much the better.  If I was friends with the husband prior to the marriage but the wife is a crazy person, the friendship becomes weaker, i.e. more of an acquaintance-type relationship.  Don't know if that makes sense - couples dating couples and such - but that's what is in my head.

5) The other side.

The grass IS greener on the other side.  Last weekend was amazing.  It was the annual graduate school candidates weekend for the OSU History of Art department.  The grad chair and faculty members select a number of candidates from the pool who have applied for the Ph.D. program at OSU, and nine students were selected to come to OSU for a weekend full of events to get to know the department/program.  They come, they eat, they interview, they tour, they eat some more, and then they go back to wherever they flew in from and wait for - I might even say stress about - the decision of whether or not they'll be accepted.  I remember perfectly how it felt to be in their shoes - I was in them one year ago.  Eight of us were there and went through the whole weekend, and then had to wait another month and a half for the final decision to come.  Natalie wasn't there last weekend, but I'm pretty sure she would agree as the other first year - it was so relaxing to be on the other side of that situation.  Yes, we have a huge road ahead of us with plenty of stress and challenge, but still, it was nice to enjoy the weekend and welcome the potential candidates knowing that we are already in the program.  I enjoyed every minute of that feeling last weekend because as soon as Monday came, it was back to the grind.  The grass isn't always greener on the other side (I get that whole analogy, I really do), but sometimes it is.

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There's always more going on inside my head, but that's all that will make the cut for now.  We're grateful to be where we are and doing what we're doing these days.  I'll look back twenty years from now and read this post and probably laugh at what was on my mind, but there it is. Bis später.