Post-college.

This fall I am not a full-time student for the first time in my life. And it's a little bit traumatic. A few weeks ago, after traveling to different corners of the world for over a month, I was home for about ten days before packing up my car and moving halfway across the country to Minnesota. I didn't anticipate how hard it would be to move across the country until after I'd done it. And to be honest, if I had realized how emotionally exhausting it would be I probably wouldn't have. But after making a fairly abrupt decision and naively thinking I could do anything I wanted and succeed, I applied for a job out here and made my first solid plans for my post-college life.

Minnesota is beautiful, but it isn't Maine. I miss home, familiar places, the general comfort of small town life. I've learned that the suburbs are not the same as towns. Not at all. As much as I don't really like cities, I actually kind of hate the suburbs. Praise the Lord Maine doesn't have them.

And it might get better. I know that it probably will get better. In fact, it has already gotten better than it was during the first week. But I still just feel so out of place here. Every once in a while I realize that I'm not in college, that right now is my "real life" and I'm spending it coasting along, staying in my friend's parents' basement and working at a job that in no way counts as a grown-up job. The fact that this is my real life terrifies me.

Summer. The June and July parts.

This summer was pretty nice. I didn't spend much time in Sorrento, as I left at the end of July for my month abroad, but it was beautiful and peaceful, as always. Here are a few tidbits from the America-bound parts of my summer.

My Zac brother graduated from high school. I am undeniably the shortest person in my entire family.

I picked and ate some fresh strawberries. So delicious! 

Got ice cream with these beautiful gals. 

 

Practiced my film photography.

 

 Walked around beaches with the Minnows.

Skipped rocks with Leverett.

Observed some glorious Sea Level sunsets.

 

Took a scenic route; saw a beautiful sunset over the bridge that I'm usually taking.

 

Hung out with my favorite five year old.

Made pasta from scratch.

Went for boat rides with a bunch of punks.

 

Made some blueberry muffins.

Spent several rainy days by a fire working on puzzles.

Dealt with the deaths of several of my neighbors.

Picked berries from my yard.

Finally got my own glow-in-the-dark stars Liberty Graphics tee shirt.

Minneapolis in May.

In May, I got to spend two weeks visiting my favorite people in Minnesota. It was really lovely, other than having a lot of homework to do.

 

 

              We tried Doritos Locos Tacos. 

We were pretty excited.

They were great.    

I made cauliflower soup.

We went thrifting and Kendra tried on this child dance/dress up costume.

Liam was Rosie the Riveter.

I enjoyed many mornings
in Kendra's beautiful sunroom.

One day Kendra and I went on an adventure to find this cool water tower and took a several mile walk around a lake. It was lovely. And because Minnesota is so flat, it didn't totally kill us (though we did get some huge blisters).