This day, last year...

I cried many times and said goodbye to so many people and things. Coworkers, volunteers, and friends dear to my heart. A place I started coming to during my high school years, when I was seventeen, and where I continued to volunteer and work at for the next 15 years. Almost half of my life was spent there, so many memories, and it was bittersweet to say goodbye to it all. I took this departing photo of my desk (the cleanest it had ever been!) just as a little reminder of the hard work that I put into a job and place I loved so much. This day last year, I closed one chapter of my life and started a whole new story...

Today, one year later, I was blessed with this gorgeous sunrise on a morning walk with an old friend. 

And I got to meet Bee, an African blackfooted penguin.

It's a very different life from the one I led a year ago, but such a wonderful one indeed. I'm grateful for it every single day! 

Quote-o-the-day

“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” ~Alan Watts

And the word of the month is...

CHANGE
: to make different in some particular
: to make radically different
: to give a different position, course, or direction to
: to replace with another
: to make a shift from one to another
: to undergo transformation, transition, or substitution

CHANGE will be the theme in my life these next couple of months. I am taking all the pieces of my life, throwing them up in the air, and letting them fall where they may. I should be scared and overwhelmed and stressed, but am not so much, because I have faith everything will work itself out. The last time major changes happened (around graduation time) I had freaked out and shut down, but this time everything feels very different. I'm actually excited about what I've learned over the past couple of years, and excited about the direction I'm going in.

So, it's official--I put in my resignation three weeks ago, and tomorrow is my VERY LAST day at work. Quitting was not the most financially practical thing to do, but it was very good for my emotional and mental stability. I was just not cut out to do that kind of social work, because science and the environment is where my heart is. Although I wasn't very happy at my job, I'm so thankful for the experience--of doing something different, being exposed to people and situations that I would never have normally encountered, to be financially independent, and most importantly, discovering what I really care about and what direction I want to take my career in. I had always liked the saying "Do what you love, love what you do", and now realize just how important it is to do just that--life's short, why waste time being miserable doing something you don't like?

The other major change coming up is my living situation--or should I say, my lack of a living situation. Jake has accepted a teaching job up in Sacramento, and will be moving up there to be closer to his girlfriend. So, July will be my last month in this awesome apartment (I really did love it here!), and I'm not sure what I'm going to do or where I'm going to go come August. I figure, if worst comes to worst, I'll just put my stuff in storage and crash on friends' couches for a bit. But, I can't move from couch to couch for long, so hopefully something will work out quickly.

No real job, no money, no place to live. But you know what? I have friends and family and life is still good, so no worries.

Embrace Change

It’s interesting how each day, every moment that occurs, adds a new dimension to our lives. We never remain the same from moment to moment--we are ever changing—and become a slightly different person with each new feeling, new thought, new idea…we grow, and learn…

So, part of the beauty of life is to be able to savor each of these moments, when we discover we have become someone new. To be able to capture it, and gaze upon it, admire it, and then let it go, for another moment will follow shortly.