Reflecting on a year

It has been a long while since I have updated this, but I have just not had a whole lot to talk about for the month of December. Plain and simple.

It is coming on the end of a year, welcoming in 2013 with a new family in a new city, and starting fresh with all kinds of new things. It seems time for some reflection with the new year coming upon us; I guess my life thus far has been a constant stream of perpetual and curious change. If I had to boil down my thoughts down to one word I would say the word is "change". I think that every year since my first year of college has been a different one, usually new friends, or classes, but more recently a series of new life altering changes and events.

Now obviously I am speaking about the changes that have occurred within the last few months, but also the many changes that I am probably going to be experiencing in this new and upcoming year. I mean this is the theme of my life, so I might as well keep the cycle going. I don't look for the changes, they seem to look for me, and I just learn that I need to accept when they show themselves. I think the most interesting aspect of the change in my life is how much I have grown from these experiences of change. Growth would be then next word to describe at least the past few months; I feel like that is all I have been doing since I came down here to New Orleans. And I don't mean just maturation of myself, but my way of thinking is maturing, my spirituality has grown, I am growing in understanding my sexuality more, and in fact I seem to be learning something new about myself at least once a week. I know that when I say that people ask, what changes have you been noticing lately, well one that I noticed recently, is that I am very capable of living hundreds of miles away from my parents and be able to take almost complete care of myself.

Independence is something that I have always valued in my life, and I told my mom as they were driving me to the airport to come back to NOLA. I have always been wanting to move away from home, I have never wanted to live in Erie Pennsylvania for the rest of my life. I wasn't expecting to move all the way to New Orleans Louisiana, but God works in mysterious ways. Honestly I have no idea where the next point in my life will be. I could be doing another year of volunteer work, or I could be just working for real, or a I could be starting Grad school. I am very open to any of the options I just presented.

I was thinking about what I wanted to see happen in this upcoming year, and I figured I want to see at least four things to happen; 1) I want to be in a stable job (even if it is a volunteer position) 2) I want to be living in New Orleans somewhere 3) I want to be sitting in Starbucks next year at this time having and living with a boyfriend 4) I want to still be doing something that I am passionate about.

I know that these are oddly specific, or maybe they are even just a bit vague, but I would like it if all of those could happen in some form or another. I am not asking to settle down, I am just asking that I have some of those happening. I would also to be working harder in my current job position, making more of a long term impact on what I am doing, making the most of what I am doing right now. I think this is a good thing for me, and I would love it if I could be making more of an impact than I am making now. I think that it would be cool to be doing something like this again, if the opportunity presents itself, I am not one to plan out my life (we all know this by now, how could I have planned this?) I am aware that I can't mature fully, but I am enjoying the growing up that I am doing so far, as scary as it is sometimes, I don't mind doing it on occasion.

Well I think that is enough reflection/rambling for now, I think I will leave this post off for now.

Happy New Year Y'all!! It is a new season, and a new time, welcome to 2013!

Peace!

Reflection on my time in New Orleans thus far

I would first like to make it known that I am sitting here writing this post in shorts and a t-shirt, it is December 2nd, and almost 76 degrees today.

Now that we have that little bragging out of the way for those of you who are reading this from up north freezing inside. I am mostly writing this post as a reflection on the past three and a half months that I have been down here in New Orleans. It seems like the months are just flying by, and all I am doing is going through a constant series of changes, growing up, learning, and loving every minute of my time down in New Orleans. I think that the biggest changes in my life right now are that I am more spiritually connected now than I have ever been in my entire life, I feel like I am getting the most exciting gift of being able to explore this part of who I am. Another major change in my life right now would be that I think I may have found what I would like to do as a career. I am looking at going to graduate school for Social Work, which I know of one person who reads my posts who will enjoy knowing this fact.

My journey to coming to terms with these major changes has been filled with ups and downs, lots of questions, discernment of my passions in life, and long talks with many different people. I knew that when I moved down here that I would be going through a lot of changes and growing, but I had no idea the emotional roller coaster that I would be stepping on to. I feel very blessed to have been given the opportunity to do this year of service, because this is a year that is going far beyond volunteering, I am being given the chance to take a year and learn more about myself then I have ever known. I can take chances, follow my passions, learn tons of new things, and grow in ways I never knew I would. I know that I have passed the time for thanksgiving by about a week now, but Christmas is also a time to be thankful, and realize all that you have been blessed with in your life.

I have been blessed with an extremely loving compassionate, supportive family, a new family down here in New Orleans who I have grown to love each day. I am blessed to be given the opportunity to grow, help, give, learn, and find all that I am and what I can be. I have been blessed with the gift of education, and the ever growing gift of continuing my education after this year.

I am hoping that my year is ever increasing in all that I learn, about both New Orleans and its amazing people, but also about myself and all that I am capable of doing. This isn't a really long post or rant, just a reflection and slight update since I have written in a while.

So until next time,

Peace and God Bless.