Sometimes life moves really quickly, and sometimes slowly---sometimes it feels like it doesn't move at all.
You, dear reader, may have noticed the dramatic drop in activity here. You may have noticed that I wax poetic far less these days. I haven't stopped living and doing neat things, but the neat things I do seem to have gotten smaller and simpler. But as its now a new year, 2014 in case you've missed it, I'm making changes, rearranging and rethinking how I go about my business.
January is nearly behind me and I will rejoice when it is. This is the second year in a row where the winter months seem to have taken their toll on me, left me a little weary and less likely to brave the cold and more likely to stay in and look at pictures of corgis in various costumes. I'm not wallowing in misery or anything quite so drastic, but my moods are a little heavier and my willingness to "put myself out there" almost nonexistent. I really need to buy more vitamin D tablets...
Though to be fair to January, Christmas is really hard to live in the shadows of. This Christmas was very good, which both helped soothe my homesickness and rejuvenate me for the coming months. I only have 5 or so of 'em left here in Austria and I suppose I better make the most of them. Although my yearning, aching, wailing desire to backpack everywhere has diminished, there are still bits I plan on visiting in the new year. Still trains and planes and buses to ride, just...at a more manageable pace. Like I've been telling anyone who asks, I'm ready to step away from the nomadic life so that I can appreciate it again. Roaming has become the norm and I am so tired of temporary housing. I have no plans to SETTLE DOWN in the strict sense of the phrase but I do want to put all suitcases in a closet for a while.
2014 is also the first year in many where I don't have a real plan, a real goal. Two years ago I was applying for this position. The four years before that I was away at Lewis and Clark and before that I knew I'd be going to college somewhere. Right now I don't have an application to submit, a deadline to meet, a letter of recommendation to send. I don't have a potential employer or admissions committee to dazzle with my, well, with whatever dazzled them before. Go back to school? Where? For what? Move to Portland? Work where? Move to SLO? For what? Currently I have more questions than answers and more vague options than I can shake a stick at. I think this is what they call your mid-twenties crisis.
I'm not the only one, right?
January is nearly behind me and I will rejoice when it is. This is the second year in a row where the winter months seem to have taken their toll on me, left me a little weary and less likely to brave the cold and more likely to stay in and look at pictures of corgis in various costumes. I'm not wallowing in misery or anything quite so drastic, but my moods are a little heavier and my willingness to "put myself out there" almost nonexistent. I really need to buy more vitamin D tablets...
Though to be fair to January, Christmas is really hard to live in the shadows of. This Christmas was very good, which both helped soothe my homesickness and rejuvenate me for the coming months. I only have 5 or so of 'em left here in Austria and I suppose I better make the most of them. Although my yearning, aching, wailing desire to backpack everywhere has diminished, there are still bits I plan on visiting in the new year. Still trains and planes and buses to ride, just...at a more manageable pace. Like I've been telling anyone who asks, I'm ready to step away from the nomadic life so that I can appreciate it again. Roaming has become the norm and I am so tired of temporary housing. I have no plans to SETTLE DOWN in the strict sense of the phrase but I do want to put all suitcases in a closet for a while.
2014 is also the first year in many where I don't have a real plan, a real goal. Two years ago I was applying for this position. The four years before that I was away at Lewis and Clark and before that I knew I'd be going to college somewhere. Right now I don't have an application to submit, a deadline to meet, a letter of recommendation to send. I don't have a potential employer or admissions committee to dazzle with my, well, with whatever dazzled them before. Go back to school? Where? For what? Move to Portland? Work where? Move to SLO? For what? Currently I have more questions than answers and more vague options than I can shake a stick at. I think this is what they call your mid-twenties crisis.
I'm not the only one, right?
