Introduction to an Animal-Loving, Astrology-Following, Music-Blasting English Major
Hi everyone,
My name is Riley Flaherty. I'm a senior English major who moved from Miami, Oklahoma to attend the University of Oklahoma in the fall of 2019. Being an English major can be tough sometimes, especially when you have to write fifty-three essays in a five month long semester, but I really enjoy my major and the people in my major because I feel that they are so diverse and unique. I also appreciate the fact that I get to be so much more creative with my work because there really is no black and white answer.
Outside of school, I have four pets who I love dearly. Two of them live with me here in Norman while I left the other two at home in Miami with my parents because it wasn't plausible for them to come with me. The two who still live in Miami with my parents are potbellied pigs named Squeaky and Huey. I've had them for three years and my mom takes excellent care of them now that I've moved. Contrary to popular belief, they are not only extremely intelligent but also very emotionally intelligent and they make amazing, compassionate, if headstrong, pets. They also provide a nice challenge because they can and will outwit you at every turn. There's a picture of them included below. My other two pets who live here with me in Norman are my cat, Pookie, and my axolotl, Fluffy. Pookie is a tubby butt who loves taking naps and eating treats (she could honestly be the spokescat for Temptations with how much she loves them) and Fluffykins really doesn't do much besides swim and eat worms. I will include pictures of them below as well.
Other than hanging out with my friends or my animals, I enjoy reading, watching movies, listening to music, exercising and cooking. I am also extremely drawn to anything mystical so I really love researching things about astrology and reading tarot cards. I'm a Cancer Sun, Taurus Moon, Scorpio Rising and I'd be interested to know what your signs are too, if you know them! If you've never heard of tarot card readings on Youtube, you should check it out! They're super interesting and just fun for a laugh every now and again. I'm in some serious need of new songs to listen to as well so if you have any suggestions, please let me know! Some of my favorite songs are "Laugh, I Nearly Died" by the Rolling Stones, "Runaway" by Kanye West, "A Thousand Bad Times" by Post Malone, "Give Me One Reason" by Tracy Chapman, "Vienna" by Billy Joel, and "Beautiful Loser" by Bob Seger. I know most of these are older songs but I have a very broad range of music I listen to so I'd be grateful for any suggestions. I love easy listening songs with smooth vocals and bumping background music.
When I'm not attending school or chilling at home, I'm usually working at Sherwin Williams where I mix paint and help people decide on the best product to use for the paint job they're wanting to do. As to my educational career, I hope to graduate in May with my bachelors degree and, from there, potentially move onto law school.
I have really been wanting to plan a trip to the desert for sometime in the future. I would love to be able to drive out to the desert somewhere and stay in a cabin with a hot tub. Just imagining how the stars will look when I get there makes me very excited so if anyone knows of any good deserts to visit, let me know! I would also be interested to hear about other people's pets or future vacation plans.
Thanks for reading!
(personal photo of my pigs; photo from July 31st, 2020)
(personal photo of my cat; photo from July 21st, 2020)
(personal photo of my axolotl; photo from July 2nd, 2020)
Your animal menagerie is beautiful, Riley! I've never known anyone who had pet pigs. That is just so cool! And an axolotl: wow! Maybe you can let your fabulous creatures be the stars of some stories that you write for class. You got a sense of the jatakas from the Anthology, and that whole tradition of Buddhist tales is about the Buddha's previous lives as all kinds of animals (there are hundreds of ancient jataka stories!), and Vishnu also has some animal avatars, including a boar (!): Varaha - link ... and there's even a folktale where Vishnu liked being a pig so much he just wanted to stay that way! Shiva and Vishnu - link. Now I'm wondering if the Buddha ever had an incarnation as an axolotl, or if there was a Vishnu axolotl avatar... you might have some insight into that! :-)
ReplyDeleteYOU HAVE PIGS AS PETS!!!! I have never heard of having pigs as pets, but that is so unique. I bet everyone has the same response as me and I am sure you have heard it a lot. Aside from your pets, my older brother was a english major and I have heard of all the horrows of being an english major. It is a major that really requires a passion, and dedication. I am not the best at writing and never really enjoyed reading and writing, however as I got older I have adapted and made changed in my educational life that was forceful at first, but turned into a passion later. I hope you already have and if not built a passion for your future.
ReplyDeleteHi Riley! Prior to reading your post and seeing your picture, I had never heard of an axolotl. It's super cool and unique looking. Also, I see that you're from Miami, Oklahoma. How do you like it? Do you plan on raising a family in your hometown? One of my friends when to NEO A&M college for football for a few years and Miami was such a small town with an everyone knows everyone feel. It's great that you highlighted the fact that pigs are such intelligent animals and pets. They get a really bad and dirty rep, sort of like my pit bull puppies.. People don't know much about them but can judge them so harshly. As far as your major goes, I had no idea how many essays english majors actually had to write in such a short amount of time. I would not be creative enough to produce that much content in such a small time. Good luck in your endeavors with law school!
ReplyDeleteYo Riley! I really dig the diversity of pets. I think you can really learn a lot by being around many different creatures. The only thing I know about signs is that I am a cancer, being that I was born in the month of July, but yeah I haven't read too much into that stuff myself. I really appreciate your enthusiasm for wanting to see the night sky without light pollution. I have only personally gotten to see the night sky like that once, and it is beyond beautiful. Also, very cute cat by the way :).
ReplyDeleteHi Riley! That is impressive that you are an English major. I myself could not imagine doing so much writing in a semester haha. That is so cool that you have so many pets. I myself only have a dog and cat. I have never really met anyone with pet pigs though. I hope you have a great semester and good luck!
ReplyDeleteHi Riley!
ReplyDeleteI could never imagine writing 53 essays, I applaud you! While I have always been fairly decent at English, but never good enough to make it my major. I think my problem is word counts/page numbers. It never made sense to me on how many words minimum an essay should have, I've always thought if I could make my point in as few words as possible, then there was no point in dragging it out. Your wide array of pets is impressive! I have never seen an Axolotl before, yours is so cute! I'm a Taurus Sun, Taurus Moon, and Aquarius Rising! I don't know what it means, but people ask so I learned them! A song I always recommend to people is I'd Rather go Blind by Etta James, it's truly a masterpiece!