Happy Friday to you! I wanted to share another addition to the January 2013 release.
When I was in college, the design program I was in was really intense. It was a rigorous first year and a half of 'bootcamp' like basics classes that all led up to a 'review' process. The 'review' was a jury of your teachers and the A&D faculty who took a look at your 3 semesters of work and decided whether or not you should be allowed to continue in the program. Like, at all. It is a very stressful and nerve wrecking time. You put your work up, wait all day (some of us may have done some, ahem, 'liquid' waiting…)and then go back in to decide your fate. The day I went into mine, I will never forget. When they told me that I didn't pass, it was as if the whole world had stopped. I had worked so hard, and so long, and at the time, felt like this was the one thing I was good at. I was devastated. Crushed. Lost. I ran all the way back to my dorm room in the snow and just cried in the dark.
My college sweetheart, who was and is one of the best men I know, got wind of my terrible news. He ran from his apartment to my dorm room (there is a lot of running in this story…it was Kansas…it was big, and we didn't have cars…) he opened the door to my room, saw me curled up in a ball and not knowing what else to do just came over and with his whole body, laid right on top of me. Not in an inappropriate way, but in an all-encompassing way. A protective way, He wanted to just soak up all of what was hurting me and take it away.
That move has stayed with me for the rest of my life. At the time, though I appreciated it, and needed it, it seemed odd to me. Throughout the course of my life since then, I have grown to understand that feeling. The feeling of wanting so badly to take away all of what is hurting someone you love, that you just want to cover them like a blanket. Sometimes there are not words to describe that want, only an act.
Sadly, It is often not appropriate to lay on top of your friends and loved ones, so I have tried to encompass that feeling in this card. I know it falls short, but hopefully not by too much.
This one is for the moments when there is just nothing more to say. All you can do is be there for your people when they need you and let them know that you are there. This goes out to a few of my own people who have gone through/are going through things that I wish they didn't have to. My heart is with your heart.
xoxo
P.S. I did eventually get into and finish the Vis. Com. Program at KU. It was hard to get into and hard to get out of, but I did it. I'd like to think they'd be proud…..with the appropriate amount of chagrin. 😉
