And Now to Write

These past couple of years have involved a lot of moving around for me. First, moving to Eau Claire for undergrad. Next, moving out to Italy for a semester abroad. A little over a week after returning from there, I left for Colorado and then for York, PA to spend the summer out east. Came back to WI for my final year of undergrad, and then I moved to Madison for an internship. And now, I'm sitting on my balcony in St Louis, gearing up for graduate school. Each move uprooted me in one way or another. Going to UWEC I knew a couple people from high school, but not many. I had some family there, but I didn't spend the majority of my time with them. I was still in school, but the structure of everything changed. To most people on campus, I was a complete stranger. Heck, I started off living with someone I had only met once before. In a way, my life was a blank slate. Yes, I brought my background with me, but few people knew where Hartland was on a map. No expectations were l...

Going through some notebooks, I came across an outline for a paper I wrote back in high school. I had interviewed my grandma about what it was like when she was my age. Some of the questions were pretty basic. What did you do for fun? How would you describe your high school self? What was high school like back then? But one question made me pause. What advice do you have for my generation? Unfortunately, I did not take the most complete of notes. However, the little I did record struck me. In all caps, I wrote "SLOW DOWN." Being a generally busy person, it made me sigh. I don't know about you, but I have a hard time slowing down. Unless I go on a retreat, I don't know how to hit pause. When I do have breaks, I don't know how to use them. My list of books to read, places to go, and creative projects to do only seem to increase. During the school year, I am constantly on the move. While I used to sit and journal at least monthly, now I do so maybe once a s...