GREETINGS FROM IOWA
Iowa—The TALL Corn State
My “thanks for being drafted” shot on my newly-started Dribbble account. I can’t get enough of signing up for yet another online account that I’ll suck at keeping track of.
I’ve officially been running this little blog for two years (as of two days ago)! I realize this is a terribly dumb thing to celebrate, but I literally have nothing else to do while I’m temporarily stuck at home. Roll with me here.
I started this bad boy up while I was taking summer classes at ISU between my sophomore and junior years, and I needed something to keep me occupied in the two-hour gap between my two classes. I spent some time today stalking some of my first posts (you can stalk them too, but I’d recommend against it—they’re about as bland as off-brand Pop Tarts).
But, in the midst of my self-deprecating browsing, I did realize something: This will be the third summer that I’ve been keeping tabs on my mundane day-to-day life through this blog, and it’s the first one in which I’m actually really happy about my life’s current status and where it’s headed. The majority of my past two summers were spent wallowing in self-pity because I didn’t get some job/internship I wanted, because I didn’t think I was talented enough, because I spilt milk, whatever. Wah wah wahhh.
Two years of blogging has taught me that I’m really good at finding non-life-changing problems to bitch about like they’re most definitely going to change my life. It’s time to take a step back and rationalize that—in one way or another—each of those perceived failures has taught me something that helped me along this (hopefully not perceived) road to future success. Failure is in the eye of the beholder. Or blogger. Or something like that.
A designer should look for inspiration everywhere. Everywhere except websites with lists of ‘design inspiration.’
Per my boss’s request, my current milestone-appropriate Twitter picture.
Alumni Status: Achieved.
After four years of hardcore work and four years of hardcore bitching about having to do it, I’m pretty proud to say that I became an alum of Iowa State University this weekend. I spent the majority of Saturday thinking and telling people that I didn’t feel any different; that the graduated version of myself and the non-graduated version of myself were pretty much the same thing (minus the fact that the graduated version of myself is also currently homeless). So it is from the comfort of my booth at my current address—the Ames Panera Bread—that I present to you the first two days of my life in the real world.
Badass things I have done since graduation day:
- Showed up at Hilton an oh-so-shameful eight minutes after the
unnecessarily earlycall time for the graduation ceremony - Tweeted from the ceremony
- Illegally lived in my apartment for 27 hours after checking out
- Parked in a parking lot the day after my permit for it expired
- Managed to graduate despite the fact that I have a homework assignment that I still need to do
Real-world things I have done since graduation day:
- Cleaned
- Packed
- Watched other people clean and pack
- Lived out of my car for a day
- Discovered that I can fit all of my major life necessities in a shoe box
Sentimental things I have done since graduation day:
- Stayed in my apartment with my roommates 27 hours after check out
because nothing was packed or clean yetbecause it was too soon to say goodbye to the place - Took the traditional cap’n’gown-with-the-parents picture
- Teared up at a couple of the Design professors’ graduation speeches (but made sure no one saw it—that’s too sappy)
- Teared up as one of my best friends moved away (but made sure they didn’t see it—that’s too sappy)
- Tweeted a line from a professor’s speech because I figured it’d be good to at least take one thing from them:
“The world has too many people who will tell you what’s difficult. Tell them what’s possible.”
In about a month, that pale yellow one in the middle will be the newest place that I call home. I think it’s adorable. :)
1905 time table for the Ames & College Railway (er…railwa?)
1926 advertisement for Coon Station, Ames, IA
This was created by L.M. Bosworth, an Ames business from the early 1900s.
In honor of graduation, I’m just going to dedicate this week to posting old things from Ames that I’ve found. It’s a coping mechanism…or something.
Stroboscopic portraits by Gjon Mili. You can see more of them here.
I don’t know what this is supposed to be. Started as an L.
Ames welcome signs from the 1950s. I’m going to miss this place so much.
:)
