Consistency is NOT my forte....

My darling readers,

WOW.. it has been quite a while since I have written, and I apologize. At the end of the day, I find it hard to look at a laptop not related to work. But, boy to I have tons to catch you up on! I am the list-y sort, and I love me some bullets, so enjoy:

• My travels: In the past two months have gone on a flight in a Cessna 172, a college football game, helped with a colonization of one of our chapters, and walked down Bourbon St. It's been insane and wonderful, and the opportunity to build friendships with my sisters that I may not have ever met otherwise is beyond words.To me, its so special to be able to meet a women, spend less than a week interacting with her , but have the ability to open up and instantly have a bond- one of the many reasons I love being a member of a Greek-letter organization. I have shockingly become accustomed to airports- in fact they might be one of my favorite places -anywhere with optimum wireless, a Starbucks, and available outlets is my home sweet home.
• New Habits: Finding balance has been by far one the most difficult things to do. When you are so passionate about your work, I mean I am bonded to it for life, its hard to turn it off. I am beginning to learn how to say time out, and take a moment for me. I found a really great journal that's called " A Line A Day", and you write one line to sum up your day, and it tracks it over 5 years. It's going to be so nice to look back on what I was thinking or feeling during this year. Keeping a journal is a great moment for me to commit to myself every night before I hit the hay, a nice piece of balance in my normal life. I have also started using the phone! ( for people that know me, this is not a small feat) I usually hate, nay LOATH talking on the phone, but I have found that having those hour, hour and half conversations with friends and family has really helped maintain that connection. I was always so afraid that after college, we would all fall apart ( kind of like the after high school drift), but I know that the friends I have will be an important part of my life.
• New Perspective: As this semester comes to a close, a lot of things I always expected to like or to want to do have kind of changed. I have always been pretty driven to succeed, but now I relish those few days or weekends where at 5 o'clock, I can just take a breather for myself. Not that I am no longer driven, but I find it nice to have separation, and for some one that's never been good at building barriers or setting limits, this is a biggie. I also used to want to travel and get as far away from North Carolina as possible, but these days I miss home so much! Even though I went to school several hours away, its something comforting about your home state. Knowing how to get everywhere, the colloquialisms, the regional traits, and the similarities regardless of where you are are priceless. As much as I love to travel, I definitely will always come back to North Carolina as my home base.

That's it for now dear friends. I have a few more days at National Headquarters ( including a weekend trip to Gettysburg!!), and then one last chapter visit for the semester. Look for an update next week!

XOXO

B

Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.

To my dear readers, I am so sorry I have been absent. I began a new job about a month ago, and it has been nonstop. I finally began my job as a Regional Consultant for my Sorority! Leaving my parents was bittersweet, and pretty darn tearful, even my dad whipped out the trusty red bandanna. But I (and my luggage) made it to Minneapolis. From there I spent a little over a week training, meeting and greeting old and new friends, and reaffirming my love for my organization, and fraternal life overall.

A month ago, I began a journey that has been about 4 and a half years in the making. September of 2005 I accepted a bid to become a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma, and that November I was initiated as a rightful member. This is a decision that has affected my entire life and led me to where I am today.

Tri Sigma has given me so much: friends that became sisters (sometimes the other way around), bosses that became mentors, and a profession. Thanks to

my involvement in Fraternity and Sorority Life, I realized that my calling was to work in Higher Education in Student Affairs, and especially with Fraternities and Sororities. Sigma also presented an opportunity that I couldn't refuse: a year to travel and work with Tri Sigma chapters across the country to assist them. Ultimately the chance to make a difference.

I have traveled to 4 states in one month, made 4 new co-workers that have become friends, and have an entire year before me of travels, exploration, and growth. I leave on Wednesday, and I can't believe it has all led up to this! I am so excited for this journey to begin, and I am even happier that you all will be joining me on it. Look for several follow up post to come, I still have fill you all in on the trips I have taken, my fellow RC'

s, and my temporary hometown of Woodstock, Va.

Thanks for dealing with this melancholy, melodramatic, wistful look at my year ahead :)

XOXO,

B

Evaluation time!

Thanks to my forced month of vacation ( slash packing, shopping, organizing my life , and generally tying up loose ends), I have had time to actually read books. Not just the kind assigned to me, or the kind in the library- tangible books with fun titles and covers with shiny pink foil heels and leopard print font. I even threw in some Nabokov so I could feel brainy. Its been a treat, and thus has enlightened me of two things:

1) I would save a lot of friggen money if my parents would buy me a Nook or a Kindle. Seriously, my room has 3 bookcases, all full, some shelves are doubled. Think of the trees that we would save! (damn UNCW and all of their Eco-initiatives, somehow ingrained in me now...)

2) This opportunity to read other authors work has had me pondering about my own writing skills. Many of you don't know, but I almost double majored in Creative Writing. This led to me taking many writing classes (which I loved ) but to be honest I dropped the double because I felt like an outcast ( the granola types and angsty artist didn't really enjoy my love of leopard print and felt that occasionally having a happy ending was too "lifetime movie"- sorry I actually like my life). I tend to pride myself on being a fairly decent writer, I lean towards the non-fiction genre because I find my life to be endlessly entertaining. Ergo, I turn to blogging.

So, I turn to re-read my past 3 post to revel in how insightful and raw I am (with a ton of wit and sass of course), and I was kinda smacked in the face with what I read. I feel like I have been writing to please my audience. Although much of what I wrote encompassed what I felt in the moment, I may have edited with a heavy hand- kind of like the airbrusher that retouched the Sex & the City 2 poster ( that alien is NOT Kim Catrall). I took too much of me out of what I was writing.

Please don't believe that I have been lying in my post. That isn't true at all, but I am going to promise from here on out that I will be myself. No more censorship! Freedom of speech and all that jazz!

xoxo,

B

Home

I recently moved back home for the month of June, just until I leave for my job as a Regional Consultant. This move and transition has had me thinking about the importance of home, what makes a place home.

I haven't lived at home since the summer after my freshman year of college, most of which I spent driving back and forth to Wilmington to stay with my friends. I really think that year is when I started calling Wilmington "home". It was an odd transition, as in my heart I still considered Wilton going home, but when I was there , or here I should say, it was more like a vacation. I would be home Friday night after I was done with classes, Saturday would be spent with my Best Friend who was going to NC State, and I would be gone Sunday as soon as lunch was over so I could make it back in time for chapter. I would complain when my mom was taking too long with goodbyes and say " Mom, I have got to get home!". She would get angry and curtly respond " THIS is your home." , I would roll my eyes like every other 19 year old, kiss her on the check and spin my tires as I sped out of the driveway. To me , at that point in my life, home was the town I lived in , the place where my friends and I were building our own lives that didn't involve my family.

When I hit 22, and graduation rolled around, something changed. I am not sure if it came with timing or maybe just a change in perspective, but home became a much more sentimental place for me. The first time I came back to Granville County, post graduation, things seemed different. I anticipated the drive home, seeing my family, familiar places, friends I had not seen since Graduation in 2005. It was exciting and comforting all at once, and It was in these moments that I realized my mom was right all along. This place, these people, these experiences would always be home. They helped to shape me and mold me into the person I am, and I will always have a little bit of red dirt, sweet tea, and southern lilt in me.

Yet, I am going to continue to contest my mother, I think every person had more than one home. It can be the place you currently live, the place you grew up, the place that made a drastic impact on your experience, or the place your heart feels most comfortable. I have many homes, all providing me with something different, all fixing the little parts of me that may could use some TLC, stability in the storms of life.

So for now, regardless of how much I have changed or how much home has changed, I am going to let home soak in , and cherish it while I can rather than counting down the hours and minutes I can get out of here.

XO

B

Melancholy Defined

Lately I have been feeling a little off. And I guess its kind of hard to say lately since its been the last 6 months or so. I just haven't felt like myself since graduation. At first it was a rush, to realize that I had finally completed 4 ( and a half) years of hard work, ups and downs, friendship, and growth. I was finally a grown up.

But then came the next months, filled with applications, interviews, thanks but no thanks, a job that seemed sketchy, and finally a hire. I ended up getting my dream job, which I can not complain about! Yet having to wait to start my job, set me a state of limbo, lost between undergrad and 20 something stepping out into the world... and I hafta tell ya, it is not an easy place to be.

I was good at college. Like, really good at it. I had wonderful friends, amazing mentors, I had worked hard to get my degree and make an impact on a campus that had changed my life. UNC Wilmington, and the people I had met there, had helped to build me into a woman ready to face whats out there. Yet, what I found "out there" were my friends who were just as much in a state of in between as I was. We were all restless, broke, and confused. I had left college so sure of myself, but for a good while, I lost sight of it, as the days and weeks passed by and things never changed or challenged me.

Nothing in college, prepared me for this feeling,and I think when one invested so much in to their university experience, its difficult to not feel this way, even if its only for a short period of time. These past few months have made me realize that the one thing I was missing during this time was purpose. I went to work, I did my job, I came home, and I waited.

But now, my dream job is just within my grasp,only a month a way. I am finally beginning to have that feeling of being needed, of goals to achieve, and things to learn. I am so excited to start this new step in my life, with a fresh perspective. This period in limbo has made me appreciate how wonderful my undergraduate experience was, and it has made me cherish the people and time spent together even more... but I think I am ready to let go. It took me an entire extra year (half in school , half in limbo) .. but I am ready to take the next leap of faith, and I couldn't be more happy :)

To get the ball rolling...

Hello and welcome friends, fam, and all those in between :)

As most of you know, starting this July, I will be working for my sorority as a Regional Consultant. I am so excited to start this new adventure and take my first step into the big girl world! Some of you may be thinking, "Oh wow, CONGRATULATIONS!... but.... what does this have to do with me?"

My dear readers, I decided a blog would be the best way to stay connected to you all! I will be super busy, and not be able to call or email everyone, all the time, but I want to keep everyone up to date on my gypsy life. Think of it as a peek into the intricate inner workings of my mind; you lucky, lucky people.

I am going to be taking this slow at first, baby steps if you will. The plan is to keep this up at least once a week ( hopefully more), so I am making a promise to you all:

On my honor, I will do my best to update once a week, at least. I also promise to try to be interesting so you will not be bored to tears...oh, and I will try to improve my grammar so its not a pain to read, either.

Thanks for checking out my first post!

xoxo

B