A Good Reminder

I stumbled upon this today and thought that it was a wonderful reminder. Life can suck but it always goes on! Why be miserable when you can choose to be happy?

New Job, New Life

I have 10 days left before I move to Martha's Vineyard!

I am insanely excited. I can't wait to launch into a new job. I love the small work environment that Polly Hill promises to provide. I tend to learn and thrive better when I feel like I "fit."

I am also looking forward to life in a new place. It's always scary and thrilling to move somewhere where you don't know anyone and start your life over. I've enjoyed every experience that I've had with this including both my move to Clemson in 2007 and my adventures in upstate NY during the summer of 2010. These changes shifted my entire life. Who knows what will happen over the next nine months.

As if that wasn't enough change, I just applied to a sustainable living immersion program in India that runs the month of January next year. I'm hoping that I will be admitted and will get to embark on an international journey to learn principles of reforestation and post-petrol society.

Though we all know that I'm afraid of change, looking back on it these grand adventures have made me grow as an individual and really learn more about how to make my life whole. The most important people I have in my life have supported me through all of my crazy new adventures. I have since realized that I don't need the few who chose not to support me. Life is full of twists and turns and I know that those who clung on for the ride are my truest companions. These are the kind of people that I need to continue to love and cherish. It makes me feel so fortunate that I have so many of them in my life!

Anywho, that's just a quick catchup for now. I'm sure I'll have much more to say in a couple of weeks!

The South of the North

I'm sitting in Josh's apartment in Indiana now. My only adventure thus far today was the little Starbucks a block or two away. It's nothing earth shattering. It's just a normal, busy, Starbucks. What blew my mind, was how obnoxiously friendly the people were there. I guess I have re-acclimated myself to Boston again to the point that I no longer know how to make polite conversation with complete strangers unless it is farmers market related. (And that's because it's my JOB to be friendly and extroverted)

An older gentleman enjoying his breakfast at a table tried to have a friendly conversation with me and I stared at him completely dumbfounded. What has happened to me? Have the charms of the South worn off so completely in the few months that I have been gone that it's startling again to have people I don't know try to interact with me?!

That makes me a little sad about living in New England. Obviously they are very different cultures and cannot accurately be compared, but after 4.5 years I had finally grown accustomed to people holding doors, greeting me, and even striking up random conversation. It only took me 3 months without this constant social stimulus to become a calloused, slightly hermitesque, brash yankee again. I obviously need a change of scenery...