Here goes nothing

Considering my past history with Diarys, Journals, and all other non-academic writing endeavors, it's remarkable I am under the impression I will succeed at regular blog posts. Some may call me delusional but I prefer "optimistically naive" (if that's an improvement). Yet despite the odds, I have decided to join the ranks and create a blog of my own.

For the time being, I will make the bold assumption that I know everyone reading this - for the time being, because I intend to create a cult following and I cannot expect to personally know everyone avidly reading this blog. But until then, I'll write for friends and family. Having said this, I still feel obligated to give a brief description of myself, what's going on in my life, and why on earth my blog is named Nothing "Toulouse." So if you will excuse the cheesiness of what I am about to say, let's start at the start.

I was born May 31, 1985 in Houston, TX to my loving, if not slightly crazy parents. Now flash forward 23 years. I'm a 4.5 year senior at A&M where I've spent the last several years studying History and English. I love both of these fields, but perhaps only slightly more than I love telling people I've majored in them. I've found over the years I get one of three responses when I tell people what I study: (1) The appalled "I just had a flashback of my high school history teacher and her monotone voice," (2) The "History, huh? Well, you must know all about [insert obscure history reference featured on the history channel last week], or (3) History/English? I love History/English! I wish I had majored in that.

Regardless of the initial response, everyone always follows with the "So what are you going to do with that? Be a librarian (teacher, lawyer, etc)?" Admittedly, this is a perfectly legitimate question. It isn't like my majors have predestined my career, or even allow for an easy assumption. So with that, let's transition to the "what's going on in my life." For the next several years (and I mean several) I hope to study French history in grad school, but to do that I have to speak French. I didn't make the logical jump between studying French history and understanding the French language until rather late in the game. That means I have to learn French pretty quickly, and the best way to do that is to live in France. So that's the plan. On August 23 I'm getting on a plane and flying to France to study abroad for the semester before coming home to graduate. I know, I know, life can be pretty hard sometimes.

So now to explain the blog title. I'll live in a city in southwest France called Toulouse, which is more or less pronounced to loose. Get it? Nothing "Toulouse," Nothing to loose...? OK, stop rolling your eyes, it's funny and you know it.