This is home. Not the home where I live, but the home that feels like home. This is Nicky in the white converse and Joanna in the black boots. These are photos that were fun to take because we were having fun already.
I went to back to Nebraska for winter break, and I am going there again later this month, for an orthodontist appointment and a much-needed stay at Nicky's house. I used to live in a tiny town where the streets felt safe, and the movie theater was warm inside, with friends working the counter. I can describe all of the restaurants to you by my favorite foods. (The best thing to do in a small town, and sometimes the only thing to do, is to eat, am I right?)
I am getting nostalgic. Anyway, the trip to Nebraska will be my first real roadtrip by myself, and I am looking forward to playing old Fleetwood Mac CDs and this song by Edwarde Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes. I can't wait to watch the mountains and drylands of New Mexico give way into the open plains and sunsets of Nebraska.
One week before I leave, and it will be a busy one becauseeee...I got the job! I start tomorrow.
Any advice for my first day? Or roadtrippin' tips? I'd love to hear. :)
Today, I slept in until 10 AM. I had time to eat breakfast. I warmed up soup for lunch and made a smoothie for dessert. I marveled at the way that the streets look in the midday sun. It felt like summer. Or like the weekend in Nebraska, when I used to go out and do interesting things instead of locking myself in my dark room (lair may be a more appropriate word) to do homework.
I love homeschooling/unschooling already, and I am only three days in. Taking Grace Llewellyn's advice in The Teenage Liberation Handbook, I am allowing myself a chance to bask in my newfound freedom and surges of creativity before I dive headfirst into my self-designed curriculum.
But things have been happening naturally, of their own accord. I found a Craigslist ad for a job as an assistant/writer at a company that helps small businesses develop their social media outreach, and I am applying tomorrow (wish me luck). I went to tea with my English teacher to discuss Sense & Sensibility, and she offered to continue working with me, even though I have withdrawn from the school.
I am happy, and that is something that I have not been able to say for a long time. The still frames of my life are more honest, more inherently me, than they have been in a long, long time.
I am standing inside a cafe sniffing beautiful, colorful, floral teas inside their glass jars. I am driving across town listening to the radio. I am writing my first post to you, whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever your dreams and your imperfections and the beauty inside of you.
Let's go on an adventure together.
