Hello, World!

Naming a blog is hard. You want your blog to shout "Read me!" You want the rest of the world to think you're creative, original, and interesting, not boring and cliche. I don't think of myself as boring and cliche... but I also wouldn't put myself in the creative/original camp. Interesting, maybe. This morning on my daily walk in the park with my German Shepherd-mix, Lucie, I thought of everything I could possibly name this account of my first year out of college. Seeing as I'll be spending the majority of the next year living in Spain, my mind jumped to all of the possible Spanish words and phrases I could use. Unfortunately, my lack of creativity in English extends to (and possibly doubles in) Spanish. "Viva La Vida"? I like it, but given the fact that it's the title of a Coldplay song it falls under cliche. "My Year in Spain?" Boring. And I'm guessing there are already hundreds of other blogs with that same title. And then it hit me--the title I just had to use for my blog. It might sound uncreative, maybe even cliche, but to me, it sounds perfect. The 17th Grade.

Why "The 17th Grade"? My mom always laughs at me for thinking about my life in grades, not years. Ask me how old I was when something in my life happened, and I'll reply with my grade. My parents' divorce? 4th grade. September 11th? 8th grade. My semester abroad as a junior in college? 15th grade, obviously. And this might be my intellectual/philosophical side coming out just a little bit, but perhaps this system works better than the traditional age-based system of remembering our lives. In school, a given grade signifies a specific level of learning. But does learning just stop when we are done with school? When I graduated from college in May, a wise relative sent me the following Facebook message: "Welcome to the post-graduate world, Julia! I'm so proud of you! As the saying goes, education is what's left when you've forgotten all the details-- so start forgetting (seriously, no)." He couldn't be more right. I've been a college graduate for two weeks, and I'm already learning. I can't even begin to fathom what lies ahead for me on the Iberian peninsula.

I've established that I'll be spending the majority of the coming year in Spain. You might wonder why. The short answer is that I will be serving as a North American Language & Culture Assistant in a Spanish high school through a program offered by CIEE in conjunction with the Ministry of Education. I'm still working on the long answer, but suffice it to say that I just can't stay away from Spain (and I have no idea what I "want to do with the rest of my life"). I don't leave for Spain until mid-September (when most people will start reading this blog). However, I wanted to get a handle on blogging before I find myself across the Atlantic Ocean. Plus, it gives me something to do in my spare time--which I have lots of these days.

Over the course of the summer, I plan to update this from time to time as I prepare more for my departure and the new life that awaits me in Dos Hermanas, a small city in the Sevilla province of southern Spain. So, hasta luego...