to one of my favorites

happy day of birth elise :) you're kinda old now, but at least by the age of 23 you can say that you've lived and worked in another country ;) yay for aiesec and macKDaddy!

i love this picture of us, so i use it as my tribute to you and your incredible 23 years of life. now go celebrate.

like father like daughter

i was getting into my car to run some errands, and once i opened the car door and sat in it i all of a sudden couldn't find my keys. i literally pulled apart my bag, looked all around my (messy) floor, in between the seats, even the driver's seat visor. i then preceeded to search on the ground outside my car and under my tires. after this was unsuccessful i got off the floor feeling defeated when all of a sudden i see them...in the keyhole to the driver's side door.

these kinds of days seem to be hereditary.

you know you're kinda cool when...

for his final project a classmate creates a rothko inspired portrait of you :) this is corey taking pictures during our team's simulation on mozart's creative process:
he's an exchange student from hong kong who is just plain amazing. he's one of those people that whenever you see him you can't help but smile from ear to ear. for our final project for my dancing mind/thinking heart class we were assigned to create "takeaways" for everyone in the class to help inspire us during times of creative need. most of the class created 15 copies of the same thing, but corey took it a step further. during his explanation he told us that this class was what made him really love cornell and that getting to know all of us personally was the part of his abroad experience he treasured most. he then proceeded to distribute to each of us personal portraits he made of each in abstract rothko inspired watercolor. here is his one to me (mind you it was finals week and therefore my hair was neglected and subsequently rebelled):

see the resemblance? when he handed all of these out i legitimately almost began to cry. the fact that corey took time to sit down and think about each of us and how to represent how he saw us through such a personal medium just filled me with emotion. no matter the cynicism and this annoying american behavior of not showing others how you feel, there are people like corey in the world who truly understand the value and necessity of the human connection.

thanks corey for just being you :)

she said it more beautifully than i could ever...

college is a stepping stone, not the edge of the cliff.

thank you elise cordell.