The Mockingbird has left the nest

I arrived in Los Angeles without incidence and eagerly awaited the beginning of staging.  The first person I met was my roommate for the evening, Laura.  She is from Wisconsin.  At 6:00 pm on Thursday we went down to the the Peace Corps registration area and turned in paperwork.  I found out that there are 29 of us going to Vanuatu.  Friday morning and afternoon was filled with sessions with my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV).  I was selected as 1 of 4 group leaders for the travel portion.  My responsibilities were to make sure everyone checkout out of their hotel room at noon and had their luggage stored.  When the bus arrived to pick us up to go to the airport I was responsible for making sure all the luggage was loaded on the bus and my 7 people and I got on the bus.  My seat assignment is 59J, window seat, yea!!

 I'm about to the board my 13 hour flight to Auckland, New Zealand.  We only have a hour layover in Auckland so I hope our flights on time.  The flight to Port Vila is 3 1/2 hours.   Will update whenever I get internet again!!

Old -> New

    Picture Party! If you don’t know what this trendy thing is, I’ll give you the steps. Step 1: Invite really fun friends over. Step 2: Look, decorate, or just reminisce of old times past. Fun… yes, I know. I have the best set of friends, and my picture party was a success- if I don’t say so myself. As I begin a new chapter in my life, it is refreshing to look back at memories, both flattering and non-flattering, throughout the past that have helped lead me/us to the paths that we’re at today. It’s amazing to see how pictures impact people, and the side-effects memories can have on a group of friends, especially girls.  A photo can be remembered a million different ways, depending on the person(s), while also being remarkable the same, as well. Photos are special; I don’t care that the world is going digital, I still like my hard copy, film prints.
    Okay, it's officially 4 days until I leave. Everything is packed, everything is weighed, everything is almost done. I seem to be making lists, scratching off lists, making new lists, and scratching off lists; I'm pretty sure this process is going to keep on continuing until Thursday morning. I already new that I was a perpetual list maker to begin with, but I'm starting to think this is my way of keeping myself super focused since I haven't had a 'freak out' session yet. The count down has begun...

Pita bread

This morning, while I was eating some pita bread and watching Scooby Doo, I was thinking how much growing up was almost a contradiction. Even though growing up is a forward moving process, I have found that as I get older I am reflecting more and more on events, memories, and insignificant moments that happened so long ago; all the while associating them with new events that are happening now. But today is a brand new day, it is the start of a whole new chapter. For the first time it hit me that I must inevitably grow up. What? Where did the time go? This of-course was a realization that I have been awaiting for a while now, but I have to admit when it happens, or actually happened yesterday for real, I was completely caught off guard and felt like the carpet was being ripped out from under my feet. You would have thought that getting a credit card, graduating from college, applying for jobs, actually getting accepted for a job, or even turning 21 would have been plenty of siren calls for me to realize that I am now a grown-up but nooo. No, it was my brother leaving yesterday morning for my reality to finally sink in. In just a little over a month, I will be heading to the South Pacific to begin a new adventure of my own. Now all the lists that I have been jotting down, creating, and revising throughout the summer come out and need to be crossed off one-by-one. All I have to say is "Come on life, I'm ready for a new journey to begin".

     Love you Erik!!!

Christmas in July

Christmas in July, like half-birthdays, is one of those lovely concepts that you hear about all the time but never actually put into practice; well, that’s what I thought until this year. This year my mom threw me a simple yet wonderful ‘Christmas in July’ filled with a day devoted to the traditional holiday movies, food, and presents. Since I won’t be home for my favorite holiday season this year, we celebrated with palm trees and the pleasant Florida heat to get us in the holiday spirit.

Last month, I read The Catcher in the Rye, which until then, was a book that I had absolutely no interest in ever reading. Due to my student, part-time job income, I went to the bookstore looking for a couple cheap books that would help curb my boredom for the summer. In the sale section, along with a variety of other classic novels, sat the Catcher in the Rye; I’ll admit I have a really hard time passing up any kind of sales in bookstores. Anyway, I think that timing is a key factor in life and this book, I think, embodies that theme throughout. Not only was this book an unexpected similarity in my current life, since I’m in a transition faze from just graduating from college, working at a part-time job, and preparing to take the first steps into adulthood by moving overseas and teaching- inevitably being forced to grow up- it also made me think about all blessings in my life.

Even though Christmas always seems to be a painfully long time to wait each year, I personally like it being at the end. At the end, we are able to look at everything as a whole, instead of just individual parts. We are able to count all our blessings, see growth from one thing to the next, and reach the point of giving that makes Christmas so special. Even though we did it a little backwards this year, I can’t wait to see where I’ll be in the next 6 months.

  P.S. I still really, really liked celebrating Christmas early this year. Thanks mom!

Scene One

Thank you for checking out my blog! This endeavor all started in an attempt to keep track of all my adventures both at home and around the world. Through this blog, I hope to share a glimpse of my life, my thoughts, my experiences, and my travels. Although my brain is filled with inspirational and pioneering messages from literary geniuses across centuries, thanks to me being a bookworm, I am just a simple girl living in a very complicated world. I’m not profound, but I’ll try the best I can to make the journey together super exciting! Lets discover all the amazing blessings this world has to offer, and always remember to keep moving forward...