One year

One year ago, I set out on my journey west. I had packed up my little car of only the bare essentials, ok, plus a few "luxury items," to turn my life around and try something new. I spent that first day driving 12 hours and made it from PA to southwestern Illinois while listening to The Lost Symbol (fyi - not a great book on tape). I treated myself to a McDonald's hot fudge sundae for my 28th birthday, since it was the only place around, and a hotel room since the campground I wanted to stay in was surrounded by a state penitentiary.

Time has flown by and I find myself still in this magical little town and feeling content. Port Townsend isn't my forever but it's been good to me. Many things will be decided in the next week or so, as I'll find out if I have a full time job to keep me for a longer stay or if I'll set off for a few weeks roadtrip south toward sunny California and maybe some Canada in there as well, before deciding a new plan of life action.

Today I rang in the last year of my 20s as well. That is hard to believe as I'm sure it's harder for my mom, sister, grandma, and aunt to believe even more so, being the youngest in the family. My friend Heather asked me to reflect back on this past year...and so I will share that answer with all of you as well.

Most of you already know this but if not, moving across the country was a BIG DEAL for me. But it ended up being so easy and I did it and I'm still alive and I've learned so much about the Pacific NW, about marine life, about different methods/ways of life, volunteerism, the goodness in people and about myself. I learned that I don't thrive on working from home doing data entry during a Pacific NW winter. The Olympic National Park is a place of forever and undying beauty and continues to remind me why I moved here --- everyone should see it at least once. I have learned how irreplaceable my family and friends, that are like family, back east are, but that I'm resilient, and being far away from those people makes me a more independent and stronger person. It also helps that the west coast has some pretty fab, entertaining, awesome people as well.

Lastly, most of you know how I feel that my life's work will always involve the environment and doing whatever I can to protect and preserve it. In regards to that personal mission, one of the things I enjoy most about my life out here is that people don't live in excess - they take what they need and often go without things that they think they need, realizing they don't need them and find a different way to fix things instead of just buying something new --- I've used a lot of super glue here. When Target and Walmart and Home Depot are at least 45min away, you learn to really assess what you need and what's just excess. I spend less time shopping and spending money on things in stores and more is spent on experiences and being with people and learning about life. Yeah, maybe stuff may seem a little ghetto here at first, jerry-rigged, but that's just a-ok in my book. Saves a lot of money and gas and is better for mother nature. I only wish the east coast could adopt/embrace this stance as much as my community in PT has.

Many thanks to all of you who have loyally followed my blog. I hope it's been entertaining and I hope to continue it on. The next few weeks will be interesting for sure, if nothing else. Cheers!