summer after summer

Because sometimes you just need to photo-vomit all over your blog. Enjoy. 

This summer has been busy. It has been full of going here and coming there and seeing friends and laying in the sun and swimming at the beach.

Every summer since I graduated from high school has been different. The summer between graduation and starting college I spent in Germany and Utah, the next two summers I worked as a day camp counselor and the summer after that I stayed in Moscow to do some summer school. Last year I finished up two summer courses and then moved back in with my parents to start my student teaching in the fall.

It is amazing how different things are in a year. How different things will be in a year from now. How different my life will be from here on out in general. What people are in my life now, who will leave and who will stay.

This time last year I was starting my job at the theme park, spending around 12 hours a day making coffee in a small cafe with a large influx of tourists - some very particular about their caffein and others who just wanted a warm cup of joe. I had just started dating Nathan and TLily and I were scheming up grand plans for the future. I was so unsure of everything in my life at that moment. Where was I going? What did I want to do? What would the future hold for me? Who was I?

And now here I am, a year later. Graduated. Waiting to start my first year of teaching in the fall. This life is one adventure after another, never seeming to slow down, never seeming to settle into a nice groove. This life is so different from the one I was imagining last summer, and even though there are some things about it I would change, it's really not so bad.

Sometimes being a grown up is stupid and sometimes I wouldn't have it any other way.

just go

If you were to look at the boards on my Pinterest account you would find among them a collection of pictures of places I someday want to find myself. You would also probably notice that a vast majority of those pictures are places in Italy.

I have always wanted to travel. I was born with a need to see the world. Traveling is the only thing you purchase that makes you richer. When I was little our family would always go on vacation in the summer. We would see the Redwoods, the Grand Canyon, Arches and Zion, Yellowstone, Mt Rushmore, etc. Whatever Dad felt like exposing us to next we packed up and went. We rarely stayed in hotels, but instead traveled with our '93 GMC pickup and a travel trailer. It was glorious and from a young age I knew I wanted to explore the world in which I lived.

Once I found out that my family's heritage was mostly German and Irish, I quickly became obsessed with everything German. I learned the language like it was nobody's business and spend just over two weeks traveling around the southern part of Germany after I graduated high school. All that exposure to my favorite European country just furthered my unrelenting need to see new places.

I have traveled to Mexico, Germany, Honduras, and quite a few of the states in the USA. My grandma called it gypsy blood and the rest of the world calls it wanderlust. Whatever it is, I have it. I've always had it. I was born with it.

My wont for seeing Italy started in the art room. There is so much history the hails from Italy on top of the beauty in the land there. The lovely country sides, the colorful villages, the romantic language. When I started student teaching, one of the art teachers spoke very fondly of the times that he spent in Italy. It just made me ache for the experience even more.

And then there's TheBoy, who talks about living there someday. After my visit to Germany I knew I wanted to move to Europe in the future. I don't know when and I don't know how I'll get there, but I know that it's something I am going to do. It's something I have to do.

If I stay in one place too long I get restless. I get moody and irritable. I get frustrated with the routine of everyday life, stuck settled down in one place. The monotony of everything that happens day in and day out. And that's when I know it's time to take a trip. But my trips always seem too short. Eight days in Honduras is not long enough.

And I could have spent way more than two weeks in Germany, honestly.

I can't begin to explain the feeling I get when I'm in a new place, or possibly only a different than usual place, even if I've been there before. There's just something about being in a different country, surrounded by a different culture, with people who are just like you are even though you don't speak the same language.

We don't realize it, at least I didn't until I left the US, but people are people no matter where you go. I tend to get caught up in my everyday life, bills, quarrels with family, routines, barbecues, summers spent at the lake, work, friends, mundane things that take up my time. There are people all over the world who live a life similar to mine. Get up, go to work, take a walk, love their family, paint a picture, whatever whatever. Their language is different, but their dreams are the same. Their hopes are the same.

And I think that's part of what is so fascinating about traveling, about getting outside of your own stupid life and seeing what else is out there. It might be better and it might be worse but it is always worth it. Always.

independence day

This is the first year in all of my years of living in North Idaho that I remember partying downtown to watch the fireworks. Nathan came up from Moscow and Mimi and Daniel tagged along with us to fight off the masses for a good spot to watch the show.

The Fourth is one of those holidays that just sneaks up on me. Well, honestly, it feels like everything this year has caught me by surprise. Is it just me, or does time pass quicker the older your are? That is the lamest. But such as it is, this year was a good celebration.

Usually we buy a ridiculously small amount of fireworks from a booth and have a little powwow in the front yard followed by an hour of sitting on the back deck watching the neighbors' illegals and the city shows on the lakes nearby. But this year, we walked on the boardwalk, shared a Gooey at Dockside, and crowded ourselves together on the steps at Independence Point by the resort to watch the sky light up. The booms of the fireworks were so loud that we could feel them burst. But man, being right on the water was probably the coolest.

Never mind the fact that once it was all over it took us eight million lightyears to crawl our way out of the parking lot. Hashtag i hate crowds.

(PS am I the only person that always wants never mind to be one word? I feel like it should be one word.)

We are so blessed to live in a country with so many freedoms. We are so blessed to be in Idaho. To have cars. To have beds. To be able to sit on the beach with half the city and enjoy the bright lights of the firework explosions. We have been given so much, and it is such a privilege to experience life in a beautiful country. Happy Independence Day!

And now, the fireworks from the perspective of my iPhone. You're welcome.