Hey World

I am ashamed at how much I have neglected to update pa(i)gewithwords. My deepest apologizes to those who frequent my blog.

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind: losing my internet service thanks to the boys who lived in the apartment below Katie and me, getting an iPhone for graduation (but at the price of being without cellphone service for about three days when goodbyes were being exchanged), graduating Syracuse University, packing up my entire apartment/life while still dedicating ample time to hanging out with my best friends, making the trek back to Maryland, unpacking, job interviewing, soaking up all the memories and making plans for new ones in the near future (NYC, Brendan's birthday, Bonnaroo).

I am still in the process of unpacking all of my things, but I oddly do not feel overwhelmed.

Maybe a rarity among the class of 2009, I have been glowing with optimism ever since graduation.

I feel like my life is really starting, and all the things that I have so longed to do, I can. I am so fortunate to have a well-paying job at Nordstrom, with benefits, that affords me the opportunity to shop around for a job until I find the perfect one to begin my career track. I also have the chance to take hobbies to the next level and see if I can cultivate them into something.

I thought for so long that I would be freaking out right now after graduation because I would not have a path to follow, like I had been doing for the past 16 years. There has always an assumed progression of life, from elementary school to middle school to high school to college. Sure, some was left to chance--what I would participate in after-school, who I'd meet in classes, what I'd choose to focus on both in and out of the classroom-- but there was always some form of certainty of what I would be doing and where I would be.

Now, there is nothing but the open road. Maybe not even a road; that is too direct and formulated. More like the open sea, an open pasture.

I finally have that piece of paper--a college degree--that can prove, and legitimize, to the world what I have known for so long: I am ready to do something of value, and I can.

I have a lot of projects I want to work on, a lot of growing to do, a lot of passion to invest.

But, I am young. I have ideas. I want to meet people. I want to live life to the fullest.

And I am planning to do just that.