Summer Accomplishments I'm Genuinely Proud Of

1.) I survived grad school. Yeah, I know the MA from DePaul is nice on a resume, but it's just so much more than that. How many times did I try to pack up my toys and go home, turn tail and not finish? How much of a struggle was dragging myself to class when I was some awful, broken shell of a girl? Well, I persevered. And now it's over. And I still managed an A average. Take that, Grad School.

2.) I simplified my life in the form of cutting 7 garbage bags of old, ill-fitted, broken, useless things out. When your room/closet are the size of mine, 7 garbage bags makes a world of difference.

3.) I looked in the corner of the cabinets where I thought there might be something dead just for the sake of clearing out a foul smell in the kitchen. Ew. I'm still freaked out some tiny animal carcass is going to turn up somewhere.

4.) I have learned how to let people help me. Whether it's dinner from the boyfriend, letting someone else pick up those hours, or letting my Dad help me in my job search, I have finally found the balance between being independent and taking on way too much for any one fairly small individual. It's nice to have back up.

5.) I have embraced my nerdiness. Upcoming Star Wars bar crawl, new nerdy book series, playing Mario Kart with the lesbros. Let's face it; ant semblance of cool was always just a facade anyway.

6.) After about a million horrible relationships making the same mistakes that I was making when I was 13, I have finally learned enough about myself to be a functional person in a couple and not just that guy's girlfriend. Grown up relationships are so much better for this, so much less draining, so much more conducive to becoming a better person <3

7.) I successfully traveled across the country and made it home in one piece.

8.) I climbed a mountain (Ok, it was hiking. And it was a small mountain. But it was still awesome)!!! And tap danced on top of it. With Vanessa. The fact that my best friend from when I was 10 is still in my life to scale mountains and then be willing to tap dance at the top of them never ceases to amaze me. Kind of like Vanessa and her passion and beauty, inside and out never cease to amaze me.

9.) Cooking. My cooking has really vastly improved this summer :)

10.) Balance. My life feels like there is so much more balance than there has been in ages. I blame that guy who keeps ruining my melancholy tendencies by making my heart all flippyfloppyfluttery.

The Missing Piece

It seems that I might actually be on to something here. Some kind of lucky break, some kind of winning streak.

(Trust me. I'll take whatever I can get)

And I find that suddenly, very very very suddenly, like a little-kid-dying-to-know-where-mom-hid-the-Christmas-presents, I'm remarkably curious about what it is that's around this next corner...

It's like I have maybe finally acquired almost everything to make life fall into place, found the last few things on the grocery list to check off or something. Whatever little change in the wind it was; I'm so happynervousexcitedawed.

So much gratefulness in this little heart of mine for so so so many things.