New Scenery, New Opportunities

As summer draws to a close, the scenery changes once again.  When I last wrote, I was staying with my parents and desperately hunting for a job.  It felt like I had been applying for position after position, with no end in sight.  And then I had one of those weeks where everything just seems to fall into place.

First, as many of you know, came the birth of my niece, about which I was very excited (I felt like mentioning that again, just to be sure you remembered).  Shortly thereafter, I had a job interview at the bookstore at the university where I will be obtaining my master's in lingtuistics.  By the end of the interview, I was offered a temporary, part-time job in the merchandise department of the bookstore!

Now, a temporary part-time job is clearly not the end to all my job-hunting worries for all of eternity, but considering that it has a chance of continuing on long-term, that it gives me another month or so to find something else either way, and that it gives me that much more experience, I was excited at the opportunity.

So on Monday, July 30th, I began my training.  My job would be to restock the shelves and clothing racks with various merchandise, organize and properly label merchandise on the floor and in the stock room, greet customers and answer their questions, and whatever other tasks may arise.  It was a little bit challenging at first because there were so many details to wrap my head around, but I have since started to get into the flow of things.  And I have plenty of lovely coworkers.  For example, the girl I usually work with is always very friendly and patient when she shows me things I haven't learned yet, and when I didn't have a quarter for the locker, she gave me one. I have used the same quarter ever since, because the locker returns the quarter after I get my things.  My supervisor is also very friendly, and the managers are as well, although I haven't met all of them yet.

When I am working in the back loading up the dolly with merchandise to be stocked or breaking down boxes to be thrown out, I sometimes hear a noise that sounds kind of like Han Solo being frozen in carbonite.  I have yet to figure out what the noise is, unless that door that always stays locked is a secret chamber with a carbonite-freezing machine run by an incognito bounty hunter, but I doubt it.

So I am enjoying my job.  Arranging merchandise is one of those tasks that, from the right perspective, can be enjoyable.  I find if I use my creativity to find a good way to organize things that is visually appealing as well as makes things easy to find, and I think of it as an opportunity for a creative outlet, it can be very enjoyable.  Also, if I think of talking to customers and answering their questions as an opportunity for socialization and making people happy, that it can be very enjoyable as well.

But I was still commuting an hour each way to get to work, so I needed a place to stay closer to campus.  And not too long after I got the job, I got in touch with my first prospective roommate.  It was a good opportunity, but before everything worked out, I found an even better opportunity.  Through a friend of my dad's, I got in touch with a family who was renting out a room in their house.  That meant I could live in a safe residential area with a nice family and be only 15 minutes from work and class.  So, about a week after I got in touch with them, I moved in!

And that's where I am now.  I have a place to stay nearby, and a job that I enjoy, and will start work on my M.A. in a week.  Hopefully I will get to stay on long term at the bookstore, but if not, I have a chance to find something else in the area.  And believe me, job hunting is much easier when you don't live an hour away. 

I have also begun work on an enjoyable project.  My dad's cousin is writing a series of novels, and needs a couple fictional languages for them, so I volunteered to help him, using my linguistic expertise.  And so far, it's a lot of fun!  I have created phoneme inventories for both languages, and I'm working on lexicons now.  It's turning out to be a lot of fun.  Honestly, I think it might make an interesting side-job, doing some creative linguistic consulting for fiction writers and film producers.  What do you think?  Should I create my own business and go into creative linguistic consulting as a side job?  I think it would be fun.  It would be a great way to combine scientific knowledge with creativity, which is, of course, what a dreamer like me would strive for.

Edith

I would like to take this brief intermission to brag about the birth of my niece, Edith.

Niece Edith

This picture was taken when she was one day old.  As you can see, she is very cute, in addition to being upside-down (apparently a desirable position).  Edith was due on July 4th, but was born just a little early.  Both she and her mama are healthy.  She hasn't met her daddy yet because he's currently in officer training, getting all trained up to be a navigator in the Air Force.

Earlier, in a skype conversation all members of my family in various locations, my younger sister (in Prague), who could not see Edith on the video, asked: "is she cute?"  To which my older sister replied: "Well, she's a sort-of squished kind of cute."

And this is the part where I brag about how smart and talented she is.  However, being at this point only two days old, she hasn't given us many indications as to where her gifts lie.  But time will tell, and I can't wait to see who she turns out to be.

Thus ends my brag.  Carry on.

On Words

I have always loved words.  As a kid I read constantly, and was always making up stories of my own.  I’ve been drawn to foreign languages since I was eleven, and had notebooks full of interesting and unusual words that I “collected” all through high school.  And when my undergraduate college career began, I felt right at home with all the other linguistics majors.

The scientific study of language has continued to fascinate me, even as my classes went more and more in-depth into morphology, syntax, phonology, and so forth.  The intricacies of language have never ceased to amaze me.  But my love for words goes beyond what can be expressed in the countless research papers and article reviews I wrote for my linguistics classes.  That is why I would like to share a creative essay I wrote once in high school.  I had several versions of this essay, and this is not the original.  However, since this is the only version I can find at the moment, it is the one I will share.

What is a word? It is intangible, and yet finite. I cannot hold it in my hand, and yet my hand can create it. It twists and turns with my will, against my will, captivating my mind. Lexicologists and philosophers unite! Let us find the meaning behind this thing that starts as an idea in my mind, and ends as an idea in yours.

In my mind’s eye, the written word is a prism. It exists already, and can be passed from person to person, but cannot be brought to life without the illumination of thought shining through it. My little beam of light collides with the prism and is shattered into many different colors in your mind as you read this page. The light that leaves my mind will not be quite the same as the light that enters yours, but in that way it will seem more beautiful, elusive, and mysterious.

Prisms are my playthings. I collect them, stack them in different ways, shine light through them from different angles, to see what different majesty I can create each time. There are some hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian prisms that I leave at home most of the time because they are too heavy. But the best ones to play with are the ordinary words put together in new ways. I fancy flying words that form free, fanciful, fluttering thoughts. I also admire profound, ponderous words that produce princely, pontifical philosophy.

Words are also like pigeons, more a medium of messages than meaning itself. In times of war, homing pigeons fly high in the sky across enemy territory to deliver messages vital to the war. Different pigeons can be used to convey the same message as long as they end up the same place. And even while a pigeon appears ordinary and only a part of the scenery to a bystander, it can convey the deepest of meaning to the one for which it was intended.

To me, a pigeon is the most fascinating creature that exists. I must know every pigeon that flies by my eyes. If I cannot bend a pigeon to my will, I let it go and watch where it flies, then find a new part of me that fits the pigeon. I occasionally enjoy releasing my pigeons in just the right way so they fly right over someone’s head, dropping treasures from above on them as they soar past.

And what can a word be if not a sword? For a word, like a sword, can win a victory. Kings and poets wield their weapons against a common foe; never was a war won but both fought. The sword is a symbol of victory and leadership, hope uniting around a common point. The sword has amazing powers to build up and tear down.

My skill with the sword is yet very small. Mostly now I dream of future victories: I dream of sailing to distant lands and freeing enslaved minds with my blade, and journeying back to show others what freedom they take for granted. But besides dream, I also learn. There are many great swordsmen that I admire, that I have learned from, and that I hope to continue to follow. My swashbuckling quest this day is to find a place of training where I can strengthen my arms and sharpen my sword, preparing me for what lies ahead.

Being as it were, how can I tell you what a word is, if it is as exquisite as a prism, as common as a pigeon, and as cunning as a sword? No, I can but tell you that whatever a word may be, I love it and it is my treasure. These words are a gift for you, created out of my storehouse, treasured, nurtured, and molded to delight your eye. All I want in life is to add to them and further refine them to the glory of God. And so I will, whatever color the prism puts forth, wherever the pigeon flies, and whatever foes wait to be vanquished or friends to be freed.

Four years later as I look back over my undergraduate years, I still love words just as much now as I did then.  My concerns now, however, are different from what they were then.  Now, I’m worried about finding a job that will support me and pay for graduate school.  Currently, survival is my highest priority.  But my passion for language is something I know will stick with me, and my hope is that it will be relevant and useful throughout my career.