"Kayak to Japan"

I am officially done with this quarter. I finished grading a big stack of finals today and yesterday I had my last creative writing workshop. After workshop Yiyun Li took us out to a bar and bought us all drinks. It was epic. This is the professor who told us we are in grad school not to party. Somehow it was a good ending to hard working writing quarter.

Plus after yesterdays workshop I feel like I am never going to be good enough to be a published writer. I go through phases and I guess I am in the discouraged phase at the moment. Maybe I should be a teacher. I really did like teaching this quarter. But then I think- no my heart isn't in teaching, its in giving advice and being there for the students. I like talking to people and I like talking plans. Regardless. Plans about studying for the final, plans about future classes, plans about traveling? You name it. Perhaps my life goal is professional planner of all marvelous things. I can make my own business card.

This was my last week working at the Davis Humanities institute. Everyone there surprised me with a pizza party and delicious cake. I felt really appreciated and loved. It made me sad leaving. There are some amazing people working there that really have been a HUGE part in making grad school survivable. These next two qrts. it will be tough without their daily guidance and support.

Tomorrow I drive to pick-up Palina and bring her back home. I was looking up directions on google maps and forgot to type in the city and state. Somehow the directions landed me in Japan. So I was curious and wondered how google maps would tell you to get to Japan. I wondered to myself before scrolling down the page and imagined directions to the air port and directions to board a plane. But oh no- google maps tells me to: "Kayak across the Pacific Ocean, Entering Japan 3,879 miles"

Perhaps this is a coded meaningful message to me: about my future life. But how the heck would someone kayak over 3000 miles...is this even possible?