Living in the Season

So for my third official post, I wanted to write about something that has been on my mind for a few days now.  And while I summer is by far my very favorite season, I promise that my post is not about the months of June, July and August.

My friend Catie sent me a blog entry a few days ago from tulips and flight suits (http://tulipsandflightsuits.squarespace.com/tulips-flight-suits/2012/1/17/all-the-single-ladies.html) titled “All the Single Ladies.”  Before you judge, I want to tell you about my favorite part: “do what is possible & that you love in this season of life."

This is something I struggle with ALL THE TIME.  I know it is human nature to look forward and think about the future, but I feel like I do it constantly.  It’s what we have been taught our whole lives: get good grades in high school so you can go to a good college, do well in college so you can get a good job, work hard and figure out what you really want to do, go to grad school, get the next promotion, and it keeps going.  People ask you your five, ten, twenty year plan and frankly, sometimes it is just exhausting.

While I have heard this a million times, for some reason this blog post just hit home with me. When we are constantly looking ahead and anticipating the next life stage: when I go to grad school, when I get married, when I get this certain job, when I move to this place, we often miss out on the great things about right now.

I had a blast when I lived in DC.  There were hard times, just like any other part of life, but in general, I loved my life there.  I had a good job, great friends, a wonderful church and a fantastic home.  It is bizarre for me to think that if I move back to DC, it won’t be the same.  Friends will have come and left the city, my job will be different, and I’ll just be in a different life stage.  So often in my time in DC I was thinking about the next step, sometimes I forgot to enjoy the present.

So after being inspired, I’m going to really try to love the stage I’m in right now.  I can’t really define it- some combination of a single, grad school, young adult, but that doesn’t seem to cover all of it.  But I know that I’m here for another year and I love grad school, Raleigh, my friends, and my family.  So really, there is no reason not to love my current life.

The author of tulip & flight suits lists examples of doing what you love: taking a trip to italy with your best friend; taking that assignment with work out of the country for a few months; have a west wing or downton abby marathon weekend; eating apples with peanut butter, wheat thins, hummus, and ben & jerry's s'mores ice cream most nights for dinner; going to yoga three times a week; taking that painting class; switching jobs, again; splurging on those j.crew flats; leaving on a spontaneous road trip with five minutes notice; staying up all night ... 

While all these things sound lovely and I have accomplished quite a few of them (NOTE: if any of my best friends want to go to italy- just let me know), I’m going to try to start small.  Last week I went out on a Thursday night, just because I wanted to.  This week I decided that over the next month, I want to watch all the Oscar nominees for Best Picture.  Last November, within 24 hours, I planned a long weekend trip to Florida with two of my best friends.  These are things that make me happy and that I love.   And I get to do them with the people I love, in Raleigh, in DC and across the country.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m looking forward to eventually doing all the things in the American dream.  Maybe even a picket fence one day.  But for years the Lord has been trying to teach me to be patient and to let Him control the timing in my life.  And while patience is still a work in progress for me, I’m going to have a great time doing the things I love while I’m waiting. J

Ringing in 2012

So I’m just going to pretend that I started this blog at the beginning of 2012.  We can go with the fact that it was a New Year’s resolution since that seems to be the thing to do these days.  So forgive me if my first few posts are a little old.  However, since Caroline just put up her NYE post this week, I don’t feel too bad.

So New Year’s 2012. Or 2011.  I’m never sure if you call it the previous year or the new year.  Regardless, for NYE 2011/2012 we went to Vegas.  Those of you that know me are probably very surprised by this destination.  New Year’s was the second time in my life I had been to Vegas - the first being when I was 8 years old on a cross country bus tour with my grandparents.  A great story for another day.

Back to NYE.  I had an amazing time spending a few days in Nevada with nine of my best friends and basically having a mini DC reunion.  One of my reasons for this trip was to be able to spend some quality time with my friend Ali and see her wedding planning in full force.  So my first day in Vegas was spent picking out flowers, visiting her wedding site, looking at menus, and registering at Bloomingdales.  It was so much fun and a great time with Ali and the Hamrick family.  I’m beyond excited to be back at Canyon Gate (picture below) in March to celebrate Ali and Steve!

Then on the 29^th, the whole DC crew arrived and more adventures began.  Of course, being the nerds we are, the first thing we did was visit the Hoover Dam.  We all went on the tour and literally got to look out from inside the dam. Because we were the largest group on the tour and there were nine of us, someone (not sure how this came about) noted that we looked like the Von Trap family.  Of course, we thought this was hilarious.

I even faced my bridge phobia and walked across this bridge.  All of you should be very proud.

For NYE, we all packed up and headed to the strip where we had two suites at the MGM.  After a little bit of champagne, we had a DELICIOUS dinner at China Poblano and drinks at the Chandelier bar, both in the Cosmopolitan Hotel.  Around 11:30 we gathered to head down to the street for fireworks and the countdown.  Then we kept going.

After rallying the next morning, we basically had 24 hours of being Vegas tourists.  We explored several casinos on the strip, ate at one of the hotel buffets, went to a Cirque de Soleil show, rode the NY NY roller coaster, saw the Bellagio water show and of course, played a little blackjack. We even took the monorail.  At this point, I decided that Vegas really is Disney World for adults.

All in all, we just had an awesome time with great friends.  From eating In-N-Out for the first time, to the Hoover Dam, to Studio 54, to singing Sound of Music sounds throughout the streets, it was just really great.  Now we can officially check Vegas off our NYE bucket list.  It’s going to be hard to top that.

here we go....

So after weeks of contemplating this, I’m actually getting my act together and starting a blog. After being inspired by three of my best friends (Caroline, Chelsea and Alaina- I’m talking to yall), I decided to join the blogging world. While I’m not promising anything incredibly interesting or insightful, I’m excited to improve my writing, get my thoughts out, and maybe even find out some new things about myself. I’m hoping my posts will somehow document lessons I’ve learned, things I love, and let’s be honest, lessons I’m still learning.

For anyone that doesn’t know my life story already, here it is. My name is Lauren. Very few people actually call me by my first name. I grew up in Wake Forest, North Carolina and lived there until my high school graduation. I then made my way over to Winston-Salem and spent four fantastic years at Wake Forest University. Leaving Wake on May 19, 2008 was a sad day.

About a month later, I moved to DC. I’m still not sure why I picked this city over Charlotte, Atlanta, Charleston and all the other places in the Southeast I was considering after graduation. Believe it or not, I received my job offer to move to DC in the midst of senior year post exams with the entire graduating class of 2008. And then I did it.

Moving to DC and knowing only two people in the entire city was one of the most frightening and most rewarding decisions I have ever made. I lived in the city for three years, making wonderful friends, exploring city life, and learning more about the person I wanted to be. Like many District residents, I started to get the grad school itch and moved back to Raleigh, NC in August 2011 to start the MPA program at NC State University. 

I can’t count the number of books that I have read about small town girls moving to the city. But there seems to be a shortage of stories about what happens with the newly formed city girl moves back…and that’s where my story starts.