Oi! Oi! Oi!

Well, after an undergraduate career that lasted eight years (*blush*) guess what!!

(waits for audience to quiet down)

Tragic is GRADUATING!! Ah, I thought this day would never ever come. There were times, suffering through inorganic chemistry and pathophysiology, that there was no light at the end of the tunnel. I have to admit that, only after changing my major from nursing to history did the oppressive shroud of academic doom miraculously slip from my shoulders.

As I sit here looking at my transcripts, here's the tally:

total university classes taken: 71
total units completed: 194
overall grade point average (including nursing classes): 2.82
history grade point average: 3.2

finally graduating after eight long years: PRICELESS

My family is coming up for the graduation, as is my most wonderful fiance!

I feel like a kid in a candy store!

xoxoxox, Tragic

Why Is This Century Worse...

Why Is This Century Worse
by Anna Andreevna Akhmatova

Why is this century worse than those others?
Maybe, because, in sadness and alarm,
It only touched the blackest of the ulcers,
But couldn't heal in its own span of time.

Else, in the West, the earthly sun endows
The roofs of cities with the morning light,
But, here, the White already marks a house,
And calls for crows, and the crows fly.

(1919)

You'll Live, But I'll Not...

You'll Live, But I'll Not
by Anna Andreevna Akhmatova

You'll live, but I'll not; perhaps,
The final turn is that.
Oh, how strongly grabs us
The secret plot of fate.

They differently shot us:
Each creature has its lot,
Each has its order, robust, --
A wolf is always shot.

In freedom, wolves are grown,
But deal with them is short:
In grass, in ice, in snow, --
A wolf is always shot.

Don't cry, oh, friend my dear,
If, in the hot or cold,
From tracks of wolves, you'll hear
My desperate recall.

(1959)

Motherhood

"Motherhood is a bright torture. I was not worthy of it."
-Anna Andreevna Akhmatova

Dedication

"Dedication" by Anna Andreevna Akhmatova

Mountains bow down to this grief,
Mighty rivers cease to flow,
but the prison gates hold firm.
And behind them are the "prisoners' burrows"
And mortal woe.
For somewone a fresh breeze blows,
For someone the sunset luxuriates--
We wouldn't know, we are those who are everywhere
Hear only the rasp of that hateful key
And the soldiers' heavy tread.
We rose as if for an early service,
trudged through the savaged capital
And met there, more lifeless than the dead;
The sun is lower and the Neva mistier,
But hope keeps singing from afar.
The verdict... And her tears gush forth,
Already she is cut off from the rest,
as if they painfully wrenched life from her heart,
As if they brutally knocked her flat,
But she goes on... Staggering... Alone
Where now are my chance friends
Of those two diabolical years?
What do they imagine in Siberia's storms,
What appears to them dimly in the circle of the moon?
I am sending my farewell greeting to them.

(March 1940)

Requiem

"Requiem" by Anna Adreevna Akhmatova

No, not under the vault of alien skies,
And not under the shelter of alien wings--
I was with my people then,
There, where my people, unfortunately, were.

(1961)

How Old Are You?

Hmm.... Let's see....

I remember when sending a regular letter only needed a 25 cent stamp.

I remember buying my very first album, Cyndi Lauper "She's so Unusual" on vinyl.

The first time I saw Star Wars was on network TV. We recorded it on our VCR.

I remember card catalogues, and writing papers for high school without the internet.

I remember when "Ice, Ice Baby" was at the top of the charts. (I was in the 6th grade, baby!)

Along time ago, Michael Jackson was a music sensation with number one albums. When I was in pre-school, I had a red shirt with a picture of him on it.

I remember watching "Magnum P.I." and "the Smurfs" when I was little.

I remember when the Berlin Wall came down, and everyone proclaiming that the world would definitely be a much safer place when the Soviet Union Fell.

~Tragic