My upcoming graduation has brought a lot of stress into my life, whether arguments and conflicts amongst friends, planning finances and career plans for the future, or trying to just enjoy my last few weeks. I can't even begin to name the number of stressors that are present in my life right now.

ANYWAY, I thought it might be good to take a few minutes to focus on some positives. So here you go!

1) Bathilda: I have this awesome green pepper plant that I adopted for two weeks as a part of an environmental and sustainability project here on campus. I'll take care of it and foster its growth and then return it to be planted in our campus garden (the green peppers will then be served in the dining services). Anyway, this little bugger of a plant is adorable and super fun!

2) Europe: I leave for Europe in six weeks! How great is that? I've been trying to make this happen for years, and I can't believe it's real. Life is great.

3) School: I will be spending the rest of my life in schools, but in three weeks I will be DONE WITH HOMEWORK! At least until grad school, but hey, we'll deal with that later.

4) Exit loan interviews: All of my friends spent the day today in exit loan sessions learning how to pay back their loans on a 10 or 20 year plan. Thanks to my awesome madre and padre, I didn't have to attend a single one of these sessions. In fact, today I was blessed to receive an $800 reimbursement check for my Chicago trip!

5) Clarinet: I still have the joyful opportunity to be playing clarinet both in Echo Band every Sunday evening and in my conducting class every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I meant this whole thing to be a joke, but it's turning out that I'm not actually that bad at clarinet? Weird.

6) Jobs: I am going to get a job! I'm trying so hard. I did a mock interview this morning, which was really emotionally straining, but a good experience for me. I had my first interview with a school tonight, but there must have been some miscommunication because we weren't able to connect over the phone. We're hopefully rescheduling for early next week.

7) Beethoven's 9th: This music is great! I am so fortunate to have the opportunity to make wonderful music with such talented students every day. For four or five days in the last week, we've spend 45 minutes in sectionals, and I've had the chance to lead the Sopranos each of these days. It's been a blessing for me to take such ownership in pride in knowing that I am responsible for having taught the Sopranos much of the music.

There are myriad other things I could list, but this has already done its job - put me in a better mood and reminded me of all the things in life I have to enjoy during times of trial.

What doesn't kill us only makes us stronger, right? ;-)