This is summer.

Freezing cold 6 a.m. runs around lakes, before the melting heat starts.

Juggling phone calls and emails, all trying to contact me to be in a story.

Kayaking from Calhoun to Isles to Cedar Lake and back again.

Getting restless in the office and walking down the alley to the coffee shop to work.

Biking eight miles into Downtown, and changing for work in the office bathroom while wiping sweat from.. everywhere.

Working all day at two different jobs, only to go home and do some freelance work.

Having a few days off (finally) and using them all up driving far distances to be in weddings or relax at cabins.

Working on my summer Chaco tan, and getting instead a nice shorts tan.

Not having the money, or the time, to go shopping for clothes, despite needing some upgrades.

Putting off hobbies like reading or painting, because, who has time?

Writing, constantly. Stories for the magazines, blogging, freelancing online. Always writing.

Making to-do lists, losing them, and forgetting everything.

Using my bike as my car; from Northeast to Uptown to Downtown and everywhere in between. Seriously considering biking distances vastly too far, just to avoid using gas.

Saving every penny from waitressing in a big mug, counting down the days and the dollars until my next adventure.

Writing it all down here.

Hole in the Wall: A History

I wish I could say this post commemorated some kind of blogiversary of mine, but it doesn't. Just been thinking a log about what my future looks like, and looking back for some answers. This is the story of my (short-lived) adult life as a blogger.

So far, I have been blogging since 2010. I started a blog in high school and wrote things sporadically. They were mostly for me. I didn't ever share the link, and hardly anyone knew I even had one. Which was probably a good thing.

The summer before freshman year of college I tried to maintain my blog a little more often. I shared the link with people on social media and some people started to follow it. Why they would read it, I have no clue. It's cringe worthy, which is why I will never again share the link and will let it die slowly.

This blog you're reading now was created in 2013, and started out as a class project in multimedia news writing. I would visit local small restaurants and coffee shops and write things about them. Hence, the name Hole in the Wall.

Once that class ended, I decided to keep writing here over the summer since my big goals for my old blog had since died out. I wrote things sometimes, and shared my thoughts but never very consistently or seriously. Again, it was mostly for me.

The spring of 2014 brought an opportunity to actually document something consistently. I was in a class that demanded a hefty project: create art daily for an hour and a half. Since this took up a significant part of my life that semester, I decided to blog my process each day.

After that, it was senior year. This year was unique because 1. I was thinking a lot about career goals, what kind of job I wanted, how seriously blogging could be considered as a job and the fact that potential employers wanted to read my blog (?) so I wanted to post more consistently and 2. simultaneously, I was living with freshman, who were on the other end of the career/jobs/hire me/help me spectrum.

I blogged about being an art major and what it had taught me, I blogged about being an RA and living in a small room among freshman, and I blogged about life in college and searching for my passions.

What's next? I hope to blog much more consistently, redesign my site, add some more regular series posts, and maybe even turn this into a real gig. Wishful thinking.

I have unrealistic majors and my life is important

I've been thinking about this lately:

Today I spent a ridiculous amount of time painting a large canvas white. 

Some people may look at that fact and think oh, what a waste of time. But I found this really productive. It was something I needed to get done. 

Yesterday in class we learned about putting together canvas and stretcher bars, and in another class we looked at drawings and talked about them for about an hour and a half. The rest of my day was a flurry of interviews and research for stories I'm writing and getting lost in the writing itself. Some may look at my day and think how are these skills you can use in real life? 

I love making art. I love using my hands to produce something that wasn't there before, that came out of my mind and was translated into something tangible. I love looking at other people's art, and learning from the way their minds work. I love learning new ways to make art, and exploring all the realms this major has to offer. 

I love to write. I love learning new interesting things about people and getting to tell their stories. I love reading other people's writing and learning from the way they think. I love when people let me into their lives to see and hear about intimate details about the way they live. 

I am incredibly blessed to get to study art and journalism in a place like this. 

My schedule as a double major in art and journalism is kind of hilarious. I tend to lose sight of this in the midst of all the things I need to get done (like painting things white) but I never have a typical sit-in-a-lecture-and-take-notes kind of day. Every day in these departments is different, and I love it.

Last Thursday my day looked like this:

I started my day off at 8:30 am with two hours of drawing from a real life model. (lol wut)

10:15 - 11am was spent talking with other journalists about things happening on campus to write about.

After another short class and a lunch break, I spent a long time talking about other people's paintings and reflecting on my painting practice for the last week. We talked about techniques and studio practices, and we were assigned to pick another famous painting to copy for our next assignment.

These things might seem trivial to some people, and there are some who would say that there is no way this can translate into a job. But let me tell you.

I have learned a ton about thinking visually, about gathering information, about building relationships, about consistency and productivity, and about and doing what I love. You can't tell me that wasn't worth all those dumb general ed classes.

My homework for that night included:

-Make 3-4 drawings
-Pick a famous painting to forge
-Interview people for a few stories for the newspaper
-Do some research for a more in-depth story, including reading other published work

Making art and writing stories. This is what I love to do, and I get to do it for homework.

I honestly feel like the luckiest person in the world.