I am now officially a college graduate! Welcome to the real world, everyone keeps saying. Well, I don't know how I feel about the real world, but I am certainly excited to be a college grad! Four years of hard work and hard playing are over, and the future is looking really bright. I will be on the river again this summer, but after that, the world is my oyster! I do not know where I will be or what I will be doing for my livelihood, but I know it will be something fun and something I am passionate about.
Can't wait to see where I end up is not the right saying, because it is not something I will let passively float by me, only to wake up one day and "see" where I have ended up. I will make active, high-agency decisions about my future that will result in a happy existence and I cannot wait to experience all that the world is going to offer me, the good and the bad!
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
STRENGTH
Today, I cut my hair!
I did it for my beautiful and AMAZING friend Jill, who was the coxswain on my crew team in high school and who has since gone on to become the coxswain for CAL VARS CREW, pac10 champions and just an amazingly talented girl. Last June, she was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer (never smoked) that had spread to her liver and her bones. Well Jill is not one to take this diagnosis sitting down, and she has since completed her first semester of senior year, is still racing for Cal (and winning), and trying all kinds of chemo to get those scans clear. Yesterday she began a round of chemotherapy that will take her hair away. So, for the second time in two years, CHOP CHOP CHOP off with my hair!
Jill is amazing, inspirational, incredibly strong, and has a LOT of faith. She has also raised over 60,000 dollars for lung cancer research since her diagnosis through "Jog for Jill," her birthday wish, and other various activities. Needless to say, we should all feel lucky to know her and have her in our lives.
Her story is a reality check for a lot of my generation, us 21 and 22 year olds living invincible lives. Her story helps me to remember how important it is to give back, to believe in something, and to live fully. Funny, those are all things St. Ignatius drilled into our heads all throughout high school and things I have since lost touch with. College has been a wild and crazy ride, and I will be sad to see it end, but it is also the beginning. I can reinvent myself, I can find a career path I never thought I would have, I can start living my life in a different way. Being out in the real world is so scary because we are unprotected and no one is out there to help us (besides our awesome parents, of course). What I mean is, there are tutors for a really hard accounting class. But there are no tutors for a difficult job choice or the daily decisions of living on our own (and I'm pretty sure there are no "hey, do your own taxes" tutors either). Suddenly, I cannot skip class because it is a beautiful day and make up the work the next day. I actually look forward to this renewed sense of accountability and responsibility. Now, if only I knew where I would be living come September...
I am excited for the opportunities post-grad has to offer me. I am excited for my life to take on a life of its own and guide me down many different paths until I find the one I think fits me best. I am excited for the adventure that is coming for me down the road. Most of all, I am excited to give back, to find something to believe in, and to life every day to the fullest extent. Thanks St. Ignatius, and thanks Jill, for reminding us all what it means to be alive, happy, and embracing.
"The future is so bright that I have got to wear shades" – Timbuk3
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Spring Quarter, my light my love!
Welcome to Spring Quarter!
Sun, grass, flowers, sandals, dresses, SMILES! spring is here once again, gracing us with its soft light and long afternoons, reminding us to get outside and to not take ourselves too seriously. For a variety of reasons, spring quarter has historically been the best of the three, as we flood to the campus green for frisbee, baseball, foxtails, and fruity cocktails - all of which sweep us to a land far away from our homework and sunkiss our pale winter skin. The lawns are green, the flowers so vibrant our pictures don't need enhancing to look magical.
Makes me excited for summer! Hope everyone's spring is full of joy!
Sun, grass, flowers, sandals, dresses, SMILES! spring is here once again, gracing us with its soft light and long afternoons, reminding us to get outside and to not take ourselves too seriously. For a variety of reasons, spring quarter has historically been the best of the three, as we flood to the campus green for frisbee, baseball, foxtails, and fruity cocktails - all of which sweep us to a land far away from our homework and sunkiss our pale winter skin. The lawns are green, the flowers so vibrant our pictures don't need enhancing to look magical.
Makes me excited for summer! Hope everyone's spring is full of joy!
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Survival!
Hello world!!
I am happy to say I am back in school, back in Denver, back at work, back to routine, etc. after a wild beyond wild trip to Mexico!
It all began back in December when we decided we absolutely had to make this spring break the best one of our lives so far, and it definitely lived up to its expectations.
I would hesitate to call this spring break a "vacation" and hesitate even more to call it "relaxing," but would not hesitate in the least to call it the best, last, spring break I could ask for. After a collective two days of travel, the entire group of 14 finally arrived at Club Meza, Puerto Vallarta, and immediately hit the poolside bar for tequila sunrises in true Mexico style. The all-inclusive resort insured that those tequila sunrises never stopped flowing the entire 6 days we were there. There were 6 girls (all in one room!) and 8 boys, and we were the only, I mean it only, American spring-breakers at our hotel. I am going to leave the rest of the 6 days up to everyone's imagination, suffice to say that we were in Mexico with 13 of our best friends on our last spring break of college at an all-inclusive resort. It was fantastic!!
But now, it is back to the grind. I have officially started my last quarter of college, and at age 22 (no longer the irresponsible 21), the real world is knocking at the door. The dreaded question, "what are your post-graduation plans?" looms overhead. So, what am I going to do?
Well, the easiest answer to this question is that I am going to live seasonally. One day, when I am tired of this lifestyle, I will head back to the books to get my teaching credential and maybe even my masters and begin a career. Two things must happen before I go back to school:
1. I have to be tired of moving all the time and find a city I want to settle in.
2. I have to resuscitate my desire to learn, my desire to be in the classroom. After non-stop school from age 4 on, I am ready for a break. I want to WANT to go to school before I have to go.
Besides, I am only 22. How am I supposed to know where I want to live, what I want to do? I am just barely scratching the surface of all I want to learn and experience. "Never let school interfere with your education." Sounds like a slacker's motto, but really it is a valuable lesson. Who decided that the only viable education is in a classroom? I learned, and remember, much much more from my Field Quarter experience than I learned in the classroom.
There is direction to my life. I have goals. I am intelligent. I'm just unconventional. And that is okay. Thank you, parents, for believing in me and my criss-cross sense of living.
Currently, I am enrolled in some pretty conventional classes. In order to graduate, I am taking a CORE called "communication in close relationships" (blah) and Accounting and Finance to finish up my business minor. This quarter will be a big change from my norm, which has consisted of geography, spanish, and liberal arts courses. Welcome to the real world, Jess!
Life is pretty good these days. I had a wonderful, blue bird, warm spring ski day on Thursday, followed by the Mustache Bash which is an annual bar party/concert where everyone gets dressed up in 70's clothes and dances the night away. It was incredibly fun. I saw Jay-Z in concert last week, and now I am at work at Unity Boutique, a small store that sells sustainably/locally made fashionable clothing. Tomorrow, I am going on a run with a friend and to dinner at my aunt and uncle's house. Yesterday was rainy, and my friend Peter and I finished a cool puzzle. Denver is sunny, people are happy, and I catch myself smiling a lot, especially when I listen to good music.
Thanks for reading everyone. Peace, love, create!!
"May you live every day of your life."
-Jonathan Swift
I am happy to say I am back in school, back in Denver, back at work, back to routine, etc. after a wild beyond wild trip to Mexico!
It all began back in December when we decided we absolutely had to make this spring break the best one of our lives so far, and it definitely lived up to its expectations.
I would hesitate to call this spring break a "vacation" and hesitate even more to call it "relaxing," but would not hesitate in the least to call it the best, last, spring break I could ask for. After a collective two days of travel, the entire group of 14 finally arrived at Club Meza, Puerto Vallarta, and immediately hit the poolside bar for tequila sunrises in true Mexico style. The all-inclusive resort insured that those tequila sunrises never stopped flowing the entire 6 days we were there. There were 6 girls (all in one room!) and 8 boys, and we were the only, I mean it only, American spring-breakers at our hotel. I am going to leave the rest of the 6 days up to everyone's imagination, suffice to say that we were in Mexico with 13 of our best friends on our last spring break of college at an all-inclusive resort. It was fantastic!!
But now, it is back to the grind. I have officially started my last quarter of college, and at age 22 (no longer the irresponsible 21), the real world is knocking at the door. The dreaded question, "what are your post-graduation plans?" looms overhead. So, what am I going to do?
Well, the easiest answer to this question is that I am going to live seasonally. One day, when I am tired of this lifestyle, I will head back to the books to get my teaching credential and maybe even my masters and begin a career. Two things must happen before I go back to school:
1. I have to be tired of moving all the time and find a city I want to settle in.
2. I have to resuscitate my desire to learn, my desire to be in the classroom. After non-stop school from age 4 on, I am ready for a break. I want to WANT to go to school before I have to go.
Besides, I am only 22. How am I supposed to know where I want to live, what I want to do? I am just barely scratching the surface of all I want to learn and experience. "Never let school interfere with your education." Sounds like a slacker's motto, but really it is a valuable lesson. Who decided that the only viable education is in a classroom? I learned, and remember, much much more from my Field Quarter experience than I learned in the classroom.
There is direction to my life. I have goals. I am intelligent. I'm just unconventional. And that is okay. Thank you, parents, for believing in me and my criss-cross sense of living.
Currently, I am enrolled in some pretty conventional classes. In order to graduate, I am taking a CORE called "communication in close relationships" (blah) and Accounting and Finance to finish up my business minor. This quarter will be a big change from my norm, which has consisted of geography, spanish, and liberal arts courses. Welcome to the real world, Jess!
Life is pretty good these days. I had a wonderful, blue bird, warm spring ski day on Thursday, followed by the Mustache Bash which is an annual bar party/concert where everyone gets dressed up in 70's clothes and dances the night away. It was incredibly fun. I saw Jay-Z in concert last week, and now I am at work at Unity Boutique, a small store that sells sustainably/locally made fashionable clothing. Tomorrow, I am going on a run with a friend and to dinner at my aunt and uncle's house. Yesterday was rainy, and my friend Peter and I finished a cool puzzle. Denver is sunny, people are happy, and I catch myself smiling a lot, especially when I listen to good music.
Thanks for reading everyone. Peace, love, create!!
"May you live every day of your life."
-Jonathan Swift
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Sorry it has been so long since the last post. I was overzealous in the three-posts-a-week precedent I set when I started this blog, and now it is finals time, and I am sick, and life has sped up all around me and it is going very fast, but somehow not quite fast enough!
This is my second-to-last finals week of my college career, and I am feeling the heat. I have been privileged with some great classes this past quarter, but right now if you asked me if I enjoyed them the answer would be a loud NO so you should ask me next week! From the warm beaches of Mexico, drink in hand and friends by my side, I will look back fondly on this quarter and sigh, "ahh, time passes so quickly. I really loved all my classes and learned so incredibly much." But then if you ask me in two or maybe three weeks, when I am sucked in to the new swing of things of the early weeks of my last quarter of college and have just recently been jolted to reality by the appearance of my winter grades online, I will answer with a positive or negative but definitely passionate statement that should give you a pretty good idea of how those grades will be affecting my GPA come graduation time.
But right now, in the thick of it, running on 10 hours of sleep total in the last two nights and slammed with the sniffles, it is hard to believe that the end is near. So near, in fact, that it is my birthday tomorrow. When my birthday rolls around each year, I know it is close to the end of a quarter.
In light of my 22nd birthday tomorrow, I have been reflecting lately on what the previous year has held for me. It turns out, actually, that my 21st year on this earth has been the very best of my entire life. It began in true 21st celebration style, with a month long festival of skiing, lime-green boas, mojitos and margaritas, cake, presents, and crowns and led into the magical Denver spring I have fallen in love with. From long, sunny days barbequing in the backyard of my friends house, to Cinco de Mayo celebrations, to walks around Washington Park, to skiing on June 5th, spring quarter was not my most academically focused quarter of college (though I did manage to walk away with a 4.0, it's the miracle of spring). Summer began with a road trip home on the Loneliest Highway in America, 50, that was not so lonely for me - thank you mom, and once home I started the guide school at ARTA and thus my life was changed. A summer on the river taught me inner strength, calm, responsibility, failure, triumph, and true, spontaneous, unencumbered joy. Despite some falls (there are photos) and some unintentional dunks in the river, the summer proved successful and I will be eagerly back for more in the summer of 2010.
Just because my magical river summer was over, however, did not mean that my adventures were done. I escaped the tedious life of an on-campus academic for a program called Field Quarter and was whisked away by four travel courses to such exotic places as Grand Mesa, Colorado, and Rodeo, New Mexico before I was truly whisked out of the country and to Guatemala and Mexico. Over the course of three and a half months I drove throughout the entire Sonoran desert and up Baja California, camped at 12,000 feet for eight days, crammed into a 13-person van for two breathtaking weeks in rural Guatemala, explored sky islands in Arizona and spent every single moment of every single day with 12 fantastic, beautiful soul-mates whom I had never met before. Of course, all those tuition dollars were put to very good use because I did come away with an extensive education in the ecology, biodiversity, and environmental science of the Sonoran Desert, the American Southwest, and the Colorado eco-zones.
Winter break came too fast and I was planted back onto sedentary California soil, but sedentary has never been my style and so I was off again to Tijuana with my mom and Hillside Church for some quality time at Casa de la Esperanza, an orphanage in the heart of Tijuana struggling with budget cuts, difficult and expensive safety standards, and an overwhelming number of children without able parents. I had the honor of translating for everyone and I loved it. My spanish has never been better and the connections I got to make with the kids, and the information I was able to get about their lives was invaluable. What an incredible experience with an incredible organization. Hillside goes twice a year to this orphanage and has been going for many years. The relationship between these two organizations is very, very, special.
After a wonderful Christmas and some much needed ARTA time in Tahoe, it was back to Denver via a hilarious road trip with my dear neighbor Marla and Field Quarter buddy Cally. New Year's in Denver provided a much needed reunion with my DU loves and the quarter was off with a bang. It has been a quarter full of trips, from Vail ski weekends with Lindsay to San Francisco for my mom's 50th to New York to visit Sami, life has taken me on quite a ride this year.
I will be sad to see 21 head back into the past, but it definitely is not going quietly. The end of finals and my birthday are a potent mix for the college-age friend of mine, and spring break in Puerta Vallarta will be one of our greatest adventures yet. Stay tuned for more from the "survivor" of SB10 and my 22nd birthday spent sharing many laughs with my DU family here in my home away from home-turned-HOME.
This is my second-to-last finals week of my college career, and I am feeling the heat. I have been privileged with some great classes this past quarter, but right now if you asked me if I enjoyed them the answer would be a loud NO so you should ask me next week! From the warm beaches of Mexico, drink in hand and friends by my side, I will look back fondly on this quarter and sigh, "ahh, time passes so quickly. I really loved all my classes and learned so incredibly much." But then if you ask me in two or maybe three weeks, when I am sucked in to the new swing of things of the early weeks of my last quarter of college and have just recently been jolted to reality by the appearance of my winter grades online, I will answer with a positive or negative but definitely passionate statement that should give you a pretty good idea of how those grades will be affecting my GPA come graduation time.
But right now, in the thick of it, running on 10 hours of sleep total in the last two nights and slammed with the sniffles, it is hard to believe that the end is near. So near, in fact, that it is my birthday tomorrow. When my birthday rolls around each year, I know it is close to the end of a quarter.
In light of my 22nd birthday tomorrow, I have been reflecting lately on what the previous year has held for me. It turns out, actually, that my 21st year on this earth has been the very best of my entire life. It began in true 21st celebration style, with a month long festival of skiing, lime-green boas, mojitos and margaritas, cake, presents, and crowns and led into the magical Denver spring I have fallen in love with. From long, sunny days barbequing in the backyard of my friends house, to Cinco de Mayo celebrations, to walks around Washington Park, to skiing on June 5th, spring quarter was not my most academically focused quarter of college (though I did manage to walk away with a 4.0, it's the miracle of spring). Summer began with a road trip home on the Loneliest Highway in America, 50, that was not so lonely for me - thank you mom, and once home I started the guide school at ARTA and thus my life was changed. A summer on the river taught me inner strength, calm, responsibility, failure, triumph, and true, spontaneous, unencumbered joy. Despite some falls (there are photos) and some unintentional dunks in the river, the summer proved successful and I will be eagerly back for more in the summer of 2010.
Just because my magical river summer was over, however, did not mean that my adventures were done. I escaped the tedious life of an on-campus academic for a program called Field Quarter and was whisked away by four travel courses to such exotic places as Grand Mesa, Colorado, and Rodeo, New Mexico before I was truly whisked out of the country and to Guatemala and Mexico. Over the course of three and a half months I drove throughout the entire Sonoran desert and up Baja California, camped at 12,000 feet for eight days, crammed into a 13-person van for two breathtaking weeks in rural Guatemala, explored sky islands in Arizona and spent every single moment of every single day with 12 fantastic, beautiful soul-mates whom I had never met before. Of course, all those tuition dollars were put to very good use because I did come away with an extensive education in the ecology, biodiversity, and environmental science of the Sonoran Desert, the American Southwest, and the Colorado eco-zones.
Winter break came too fast and I was planted back onto sedentary California soil, but sedentary has never been my style and so I was off again to Tijuana with my mom and Hillside Church for some quality time at Casa de la Esperanza, an orphanage in the heart of Tijuana struggling with budget cuts, difficult and expensive safety standards, and an overwhelming number of children without able parents. I had the honor of translating for everyone and I loved it. My spanish has never been better and the connections I got to make with the kids, and the information I was able to get about their lives was invaluable. What an incredible experience with an incredible organization. Hillside goes twice a year to this orphanage and has been going for many years. The relationship between these two organizations is very, very, special.
After a wonderful Christmas and some much needed ARTA time in Tahoe, it was back to Denver via a hilarious road trip with my dear neighbor Marla and Field Quarter buddy Cally. New Year's in Denver provided a much needed reunion with my DU loves and the quarter was off with a bang. It has been a quarter full of trips, from Vail ski weekends with Lindsay to San Francisco for my mom's 50th to New York to visit Sami, life has taken me on quite a ride this year.
I will be sad to see 21 head back into the past, but it definitely is not going quietly. The end of finals and my birthday are a potent mix for the college-age friend of mine, and spring break in Puerta Vallarta will be one of our greatest adventures yet. Stay tuned for more from the "survivor" of SB10 and my 22nd birthday spent sharing many laughs with my DU family here in my home away from home-turned-HOME.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Loss, Vibes, and the way we live
So I was writing a post about running, and maybe one day I will finish it and put it up here, but I have to just take some time to talk about what happened at Squaw Valley, my home mountain, and today the stage for a tragic accident ending the life of a great freeskier, CR Johnson, while he was training for the Free Ride tour being held at Squaw on Saturday. He recovered from a horrible brain injury in 2005 that left him temporarily paralyzed and was back on skis as soon as possible because skiing was his one true love, his passion, and as he said in a video for Freeskier magazine, his reason for living. Hauntingly, he says "The joy I get from skiing...that's worth dying for" in this video.
Damn. Life is short. Live it up. Or ski it up.
Combined with the loss of Shane McConkey, this has been a rough year for Squaw skiers and the freeskiing community in general. We all know it's a dangerous sport, we wear our helmets and we are cautious in the trees, but it's always sobering when something like this happens and we realize how fragile life truly is, and especially how much we tempt it and dare it with our activities.
But you really cannot beat an attitude like CR's. It makes you think, about what life is worth to you, and about how you want to live it, and about how following your passion(s) and facing challenges head on, with a smile the whole way through, because you can. Because I can still ski, because I can still smile while I float down the mountain, I will do so with great pleasure and immense joy.
Lately I feel like I've been riding the happiness train. I've felt this positive energy coming at me from a lot of angles and I'm trying to run with it and I've been pretty successful so far. Life is good. Side note, it appears this has turned into my hippy, vibe-y, energy loving entry, and of course this is a requisite on the blog because my life has turned into a bit of a hippy, vibe-y, energy experiment that is working out really well.
For all of our passions, for all of the things that keep us going throughout the day, whether it is a person, a moment, a touching action, an inspiring thought, a beautiful image, a conversation, nature, a friend, anything, take a minute to love it, truly love it. Put that energy out there, and feel it come back because it always does. My friend Cole once told me a couple of years ago, when I asked him why he was so generous, what were his motivations for being such a generous person, that he felt that his generosity would come back to him in some way. This always stuck with me for a variety of reasons. I was impressed with the thought, and it was sort of the first time I had heard this philosophy applied to the life of the college kid, where everything seems bigger than it is and perspective gets lost in the hustle and bustle of academia and social pressure (it's more like social pressure followed by academia, priorities are a little weird in college). I have tried to adopt this philosophy, as I think Cole has as well, in all aspects of my life. What you give inevitably comes back to you. It's like the overquoted but no less brilliant John Lennon, "and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." There are a lot of guides to happiness out there, and at my ripe old age of infinite wisdom (Ha) I have boiled them all down to that one. Positivity, realistic optimism in the face of adversity, is the only way to live the gift we have been given and the only way to truly fulfill our own dreams, and to make the people who have gone before us, like CR Johnson, proud of us.
"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light." -Albus Dumbledore
Damn. Life is short. Live it up. Or ski it up.
Combined with the loss of Shane McConkey, this has been a rough year for Squaw skiers and the freeskiing community in general. We all know it's a dangerous sport, we wear our helmets and we are cautious in the trees, but it's always sobering when something like this happens and we realize how fragile life truly is, and especially how much we tempt it and dare it with our activities.
But you really cannot beat an attitude like CR's. It makes you think, about what life is worth to you, and about how you want to live it, and about how following your passion(s) and facing challenges head on, with a smile the whole way through, because you can. Because I can still ski, because I can still smile while I float down the mountain, I will do so with great pleasure and immense joy.
Lately I feel like I've been riding the happiness train. I've felt this positive energy coming at me from a lot of angles and I'm trying to run with it and I've been pretty successful so far. Life is good. Side note, it appears this has turned into my hippy, vibe-y, energy loving entry, and of course this is a requisite on the blog because my life has turned into a bit of a hippy, vibe-y, energy experiment that is working out really well.
For all of our passions, for all of the things that keep us going throughout the day, whether it is a person, a moment, a touching action, an inspiring thought, a beautiful image, a conversation, nature, a friend, anything, take a minute to love it, truly love it. Put that energy out there, and feel it come back because it always does. My friend Cole once told me a couple of years ago, when I asked him why he was so generous, what were his motivations for being such a generous person, that he felt that his generosity would come back to him in some way. This always stuck with me for a variety of reasons. I was impressed with the thought, and it was sort of the first time I had heard this philosophy applied to the life of the college kid, where everything seems bigger than it is and perspective gets lost in the hustle and bustle of academia and social pressure (it's more like social pressure followed by academia, priorities are a little weird in college). I have tried to adopt this philosophy, as I think Cole has as well, in all aspects of my life. What you give inevitably comes back to you. It's like the overquoted but no less brilliant John Lennon, "and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make." There are a lot of guides to happiness out there, and at my ripe old age of infinite wisdom (Ha) I have boiled them all down to that one. Positivity, realistic optimism in the face of adversity, is the only way to live the gift we have been given and the only way to truly fulfill our own dreams, and to make the people who have gone before us, like CR Johnson, proud of us.
"Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light." -Albus Dumbledore
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Energy, and the people around us
This past Friday I was lucky enough to get to stay in The Mountains (yes, they are important enough to be capitalized) with my dear friend Emily and her parents. We were driving home from the grocery store - we picked up baking ingredients in an attempt to defy elevation and master cookies at 12,000 ft. - and the snow was really coming down. Earlier that day we had skied with some friends of mine from Denver, some boys who were feeling less-than-wonderful on a Friday morning (typical of DU students, because we have no Friday classes - those of you who have experienced college understand the beauty of this arrangement). The day had been necessarily mellow, but chock full of beautiful white powder, and we were getting "refills" too. It was cold. It was wet. And it was terrific. As February comes to a close, we spoiled Colorado skiers are finally receiving our annual powder cache, and we are ecstatic about it.
Anyways, back to the car. So we were driving through this wonderful storm, going a little too fast because a hot tub was waiting for us at the end of our journey, and talking about the spring. This spring, we planned, we would camp every weekend. And hike every Saturday. And culminate our spring (my last spring at DU) with a long weekend in Moab, using the obligatory one day of hooky, basking in the sun, eating partially cooked rice, hiking, and sleeping in our beloved Love Tent, our temporary home last quarter and the sidekick to all of our Field Quarter adventures. Caught up as we were in our day dreams of sun, sandstone landscapes, and tanned skin, we took ourselves out of the present and planted ourselves squarely in the future.
I'm sure you think that the next part of the story is a car accident, because here we are driving in a snow storm and letting our minds wander, but in fact the next part of the story is an interesting conversation about the winter, the snow, and the cold weather. After such an amazing day of skiing, it is hard to believe I was willing to spend a few minutes yearning for the spring. But the spring, with its pleasant weather pattern, is the perfect background for a variety of outdoor activities. I feel stuck in the winter sometimes, because many activities are snowed out. But skiing, fantastic skiing, is a winter sport. And it is my favorite.
So why do I love skiing so wholeheartedly and with all of my being? Why is it that after all of these years, I have come back to the sport every winter, have chosen my college because of it, have shaped my academic schedule around it? If you knew me in middle school, during my formative skiing years, you know I hated skiing. I hated being away every weekend, I hated putting boots on in the morning, I hated the cold. I had no friends because I refused to take my gloves off at break, so sat at a table with my helmet on, in my full turquoise one piece, wondering why no one would talk to me. Despite those days when I would talk to myself as I sped down the mountain, I loved the sport. I loved the feeling of zooming by people as they watched these little kids going a little too fast. I fell back in love with the sport when I came to Colorado. The Rocky's are breathtaking.
Back then, I ignored the people and focused on the technicalities of the sport. Now, the people make it for me. The chairlift rides, the cramped lunch tables, the friendly (or not-so-friendly) lifties. Everyone loves skiing. It brings out the best in people. Sure, there are some frustrated snowboarders and some crying kids, but for the most part, people are jazzed to be out there, enjoying the snow, the sun, and the (overpriced) food. And that is why I love skiing. I get to be a part of the someone's vacation, of someone's great day, I get to be a part of someone's smile. The grins of the people I sit next to on the chairlift, the whoops of friends meeting friends and the wind whipping past my ears and through my hat and freezing my hair around my face, that is why I ski today. If you see me on the mountain, these days it's usually Keystone and it's usually a Thursday, I can guarantee you I will be grinning, chatting, and waving my way down the Rocky Mountain slopes in that crisp air, sharing a bond with thousands upon thousands of strangers who are also at their best when skiing out fresh lines of bowls and carving the corduroy of the rolling groomers.
"But it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world."
Anyways, back to the car. So we were driving through this wonderful storm, going a little too fast because a hot tub was waiting for us at the end of our journey, and talking about the spring. This spring, we planned, we would camp every weekend. And hike every Saturday. And culminate our spring (my last spring at DU) with a long weekend in Moab, using the obligatory one day of hooky, basking in the sun, eating partially cooked rice, hiking, and sleeping in our beloved Love Tent, our temporary home last quarter and the sidekick to all of our Field Quarter adventures. Caught up as we were in our day dreams of sun, sandstone landscapes, and tanned skin, we took ourselves out of the present and planted ourselves squarely in the future.
I'm sure you think that the next part of the story is a car accident, because here we are driving in a snow storm and letting our minds wander, but in fact the next part of the story is an interesting conversation about the winter, the snow, and the cold weather. After such an amazing day of skiing, it is hard to believe I was willing to spend a few minutes yearning for the spring. But the spring, with its pleasant weather pattern, is the perfect background for a variety of outdoor activities. I feel stuck in the winter sometimes, because many activities are snowed out. But skiing, fantastic skiing, is a winter sport. And it is my favorite.
So why do I love skiing so wholeheartedly and with all of my being? Why is it that after all of these years, I have come back to the sport every winter, have chosen my college because of it, have shaped my academic schedule around it? If you knew me in middle school, during my formative skiing years, you know I hated skiing. I hated being away every weekend, I hated putting boots on in the morning, I hated the cold. I had no friends because I refused to take my gloves off at break, so sat at a table with my helmet on, in my full turquoise one piece, wondering why no one would talk to me. Despite those days when I would talk to myself as I sped down the mountain, I loved the sport. I loved the feeling of zooming by people as they watched these little kids going a little too fast. I fell back in love with the sport when I came to Colorado. The Rocky's are breathtaking.
Back then, I ignored the people and focused on the technicalities of the sport. Now, the people make it for me. The chairlift rides, the cramped lunch tables, the friendly (or not-so-friendly) lifties. Everyone loves skiing. It brings out the best in people. Sure, there are some frustrated snowboarders and some crying kids, but for the most part, people are jazzed to be out there, enjoying the snow, the sun, and the (overpriced) food. And that is why I love skiing. I get to be a part of the someone's vacation, of someone's great day, I get to be a part of someone's smile. The grins of the people I sit next to on the chairlift, the whoops of friends meeting friends and the wind whipping past my ears and through my hat and freezing my hair around my face, that is why I ski today. If you see me on the mountain, these days it's usually Keystone and it's usually a Thursday, I can guarantee you I will be grinning, chatting, and waving my way down the Rocky Mountain slopes in that crisp air, sharing a bond with thousands upon thousands of strangers who are also at their best when skiing out fresh lines of bowls and carving the corduroy of the rolling groomers.
"But it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world."
And it begins
In an effort to decrease wasted time and increase productive procrastination, I have started a blog. For some, I may be joining the blog world late, but for others, it is still a realm of unattainable possibility open to only the technologically savvy. Considering my readership, the blog will remain PG (for the most part, but may dabble in PG13). I hope to store my thoughts as they come, to practice the lost art of writing, and to essentially deposit my memories here, on my computer memory for you to read, rather than leave them stagnant in my frequently unreliable head.
Case in point: on field quarter, in Mexico, as we studied the ecology of the kelp forests, the ongoing abalone controversy came up in discussion. I proudly announced to my class that every Sunday while I was growing up in cozy Larkspur, my grandmother (who at the time was about 55-65) skin dove for abalone in the frigid bay waters over the weekend so that she could come home and bake/grill/sauté it and serve this tasty meat to no less than ten members of the Larkins clan and extensions in a complete three course meal. Every Sunday. For ten years. I believed wholeheartedly, and incorrectly, that not only were we served abalone EVERY Sunday night, this precious abalone was caught from the deep blue upwelled waters of the San Francisco Bay (which does not house a kelp forest, might I had, thereby unable to support abalone life anywhere closer to us than Monterey Bay) by none other than my grammy Irene. My classmates were obviously duly impressed with the grit, athleticism, and fortitude of this tough old bird of a grandmother I had.
Although my grandmother does possess grit (just ask the Tracy folk she grew up with), athleticism (she could kick my butt in tennis until I was 15), and fortitude (she does still make multiple course meals for large amounts of family and friends), it turns out she was not an abalone diver during her spare weekend hours (but she is a certified skin diver).
And I digress...
This blog, I hope, will be a place to write my writings - that is, the ideas that come to my head, scattered and scrambled as they may be, as they come. My memory will now have an extra storage compartment, with a little help from my old friend the Internet.
From Chile to Guatemala to Mexico (three times) my year has taken me many places (all Spanish speaking) and back to solid ground in my cozy house in Denver, where I write from my trusty couch, which is not actually mine but came with the house (along with the gunk on the bathroom floor, the faulty heater, the lazy drier, and the leaky window above my bed). The couch has been witness to debauchery, tears, crumbs, and plenty of silly smiles. It is only fitting that it takes some ownership of the adventures it has heard about in our life together, the couch and me. So I write this for the couch, and all those who identify with it. All those who hear about my happily semi-sedentary lifestyle can now read about it. And see the photos I capture. And the videos I take. Happy reading and happy trails!
"You, whose day it is
Get out your rainbow colors
And make it beautiful."
Case in point: on field quarter, in Mexico, as we studied the ecology of the kelp forests, the ongoing abalone controversy came up in discussion. I proudly announced to my class that every Sunday while I was growing up in cozy Larkspur, my grandmother (who at the time was about 55-65) skin dove for abalone in the frigid bay waters over the weekend so that she could come home and bake/grill/sauté it and serve this tasty meat to no less than ten members of the Larkins clan and extensions in a complete three course meal. Every Sunday. For ten years. I believed wholeheartedly, and incorrectly, that not only were we served abalone EVERY Sunday night, this precious abalone was caught from the deep blue upwelled waters of the San Francisco Bay (which does not house a kelp forest, might I had, thereby unable to support abalone life anywhere closer to us than Monterey Bay) by none other than my grammy Irene. My classmates were obviously duly impressed with the grit, athleticism, and fortitude of this tough old bird of a grandmother I had.
Although my grandmother does possess grit (just ask the Tracy folk she grew up with), athleticism (she could kick my butt in tennis until I was 15), and fortitude (she does still make multiple course meals for large amounts of family and friends), it turns out she was not an abalone diver during her spare weekend hours (but she is a certified skin diver).
And I digress...
This blog, I hope, will be a place to write my writings - that is, the ideas that come to my head, scattered and scrambled as they may be, as they come. My memory will now have an extra storage compartment, with a little help from my old friend the Internet.
From Chile to Guatemala to Mexico (three times) my year has taken me many places (all Spanish speaking) and back to solid ground in my cozy house in Denver, where I write from my trusty couch, which is not actually mine but came with the house (along with the gunk on the bathroom floor, the faulty heater, the lazy drier, and the leaky window above my bed). The couch has been witness to debauchery, tears, crumbs, and plenty of silly smiles. It is only fitting that it takes some ownership of the adventures it has heard about in our life together, the couch and me. So I write this for the couch, and all those who identify with it. All those who hear about my happily semi-sedentary lifestyle can now read about it. And see the photos I capture. And the videos I take. Happy reading and happy trails!
"You, whose day it is
Get out your rainbow colors
And make it beautiful."
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