to-may-to, to-motto

While perusing Cornell University's English Department website today, I came across the following quote, which I have since written on our chalkboard and adopted into my growing list of graduate school application slogans:

"To pretend I actually do the thing: I have therefore only pretended to pretend."
-Jacques Derrida

This gives me hope: if I can just continue to act like I know what I'm doing for the next five-to-seven years, I'll magically end up with a dissertation and a fancy title at the end.

Other (less snobbishly academic) mottos-o'-mine*:

"Whoa! Dream big."
-Juno

"Trying hard now
it's so hard now
trying hard now

Getting strong now
won't be long now
getting strong now

Gonna fly now
flying high now
gonna fly, fly, fly...."
-The "Rocky" Theme Song


*Being unsure of the plural of "motto," I checked it out on Dictionary.com, which indicated that both "mottos" and "mottoes" are correct derivatives. I have chosen "mottos" here for the obvious reason that "mottoes" looks silly.

i want this

Dear Elna Baker,

This is just a note to express my appreciation and gratitude for your non-conformist fabulousness. As you probably know, George Dawes Green had this to say about you:

"Elna Baker's memoirs of Mormon chastity and self-denial are presented with such passion and wit and unbridled effervescence that somehow her life comes out as pure erotic adventure, a romance of wild sunshine hedonism. As she juggles it all before us-her doubt and her deep faith and her lust and longing and fierce discipline-she's a dazzlement, a living breathing paradox and an absolute original and a joy to behold."

If I buy your book for all my friends, will you please teach me how to be you?

Sincerely,

Haylie Swenson