I Liiiiive!

(If you read that in the voice of Mushu from Disney's Mulan, you win.)

So yes, crazy as it may seem, I'm actually still alive. I didn't intend to disappear for this long, but unfortunately, real life happened. The past two semesters at university were really, really tough for me. Back in late-October and early-November, I had a crisis of identity. For those of you who've seen Kiki's Delivery Service, I lost my ability to fly, and I had to find my own inspiration so I could fly again. I was also buried under a literal mountain of schoolwork. In the fall semester, I was taking two English classes and two Women's Studies classes, and all four were extremely reading/writing heavy. I was reading the equivalent of two to three books and writing one to two papers per week—which, coming from community college, where I was just getting general requirements out of the way, was a huge transition for me. To all you potential transfer students out there, when they warn you about "transfer shock," please take them seriously. If you're not prepared, it can be devastating. Actually, even if you're prepared, it can still be devastating.

So I responded to the immense amount of stress in my life by disconnecting from the internet. I stopped blogging; I stopped reading other people's blogs; I stopped reading my favorite web comics; I stopped watching videos on YouTube; I didn't go on Facebook for a month and a half (which is an impressive feat for me). It was hard enough to carve out enough time to host the blog carnival like I'd agreed I would. But I did it, because I'm a lady of my word, and then I promptly disconnected again. All I worried about was eating, sleeping, and schoolwork. The good news is that I survived, and I think I'm flying again. I made friends, and I did well in my classes, and I'm now officially done with my first full year at real university

If anyone's curious, I had to make another blog for the poetry class I took this past semester. All it contains right now is my opinions about poetry, but I rather like it (they are my opinions, after all). I have to admit, I also like its name and url better. I have to figure if and how I'm going to keep using it. Looking at this blog now (meaning Really and Ideally), I find myself faced with the inexplicable urge to delete all my posts. I'll do my best not to do that, because I think it's a little obnoxious, but we'll have to see if I keep writing here at all, and what direction I decide to take it.

Oh, and an update to one of my previous posts: I did come out to my mom, and she was totally awesome about it. We had a really great hour-and-a-half long talk, and (as often is the case with me) it turned out that I probably needn't have worried at all. Thanks again to the people who offered me support!