La Jolla

Here's another retrospective post, because lately my blog and I never seem to be in the same place. This day spent in La Jolla provided some much needed time by the sea. The pedestrian trail along the coast reminded me of the Coastal Walk in Sydney and I wish it was a walk I could take all the time. Each time I visit California, I have to list out reasons in my head for why I shouldn't move there, because the mountains and sea and trees convince me otherwise. I'd love to find my way back to the coast some day, but for now, I'll enjoy short seaside visits like this one.

San Diego

In January, I had the opportunity to attend a TEDx event in San Diego, hosted by Semester at Sea. This was the second TEDx Semester at Sea event, and I was thrilled when I found out the venue was the MV Explorer, the very same vessel which served as my home and campus in Summer 2010. The theme was "Ripples, Waves and Wakes," and each of the speeches had a common theme around taking risks and how one small move can inspire a ripple effect of change. One of the speakers was my talented friend and former shipmate, Charu Sharma. You can watch her speech as well as the others online.

Being back on the ship, brought back a thousand memories. I snuck off to the fourth deck and found my old cabin, 4043, from whose window I used to daydream and count flying fish and dolphins. It was great to reconnect with familiar faces and meet some of the new students who were set to embark on the Spring 2014 voyage the following morning. They were nervous and excited, and all the other same emotions I felt on the eve of my adventure at sea. When they asked for my advice, I told them not to take a single moment for granted, because the semester would be over as soon as it began. I couldn't help but be a little envious of them, for it was this journey that gave me the passion for traveling and learning, and I'd do anything to be able to experience it all over again.

{my passport still proudly displays my SAS student ID sticker}

{coffee & Kerouac for this solo traveler}

{San Diego Botanic Garden}

{Explore. Dream. Discover. -Mark Twain}

{The MV Explorer}

{street art in downtown San Diego}

Songs for the Journey Home

I've never been one of those people who returns from a vacation to say, "That place was great, but I'm so glad to be back," or "It was the best trip of my life, but I missed you guys. It's good to be in the office again." No, I'm usually the one who stays awake through the last night of a trip just to see one last sunrise, tearing up as I board the plane and gazing out the window as the land and its people grow small and disappear beneath the ethereal clouds. One of the hardest things about traveling and meeting new friends is the uncertainty of when or if you'll see each other again. But as I've learned time and time again...

All good adventures must come to an end so that new ones can begin.

So whether you're homesick or simply on your way home, here's a playlist to help you through it:

 

Blogshop Austin

Now that I'm out of college, its seems more difficult to find opportunities (and time) to continue to learn new skills. For the last two years I've wanted to build up my design chops starting with Adobe Photoshop. So when I heard that Blogshop was coming to Austin last December, I decided to take the leap and sign up for it.

Blogshop is a two-day Photoshop bootcamp for bloggers and content creators. Los Angeles-based Bri Emery and Angela Kohler started the workshop in 2011 and have traveled as far as Sydney and Berlin to host these classes, which seem to sell out as soon as they're announced.

My experience at Blogshop was great! As someone who had hadn't even opened Photoshop before the class, I now feel comfortable navigating the program and using shortcuts to create shapes and images that used to take me hours to do. My classmates included photographers, small business owners and bloggers from all over the map, and the classroom was the prettiest one I'd ever seen with rustic flower arrangements, mismatched chairs and sweet little succulents. All these details created an inspiring environment to learn and dream up ideas. I left Austin that weekend feeling both exhausted by the amount of new things I learned and renewed by the inspiring environment and creative women that surrounded me.

If you're serious about taking your blog to the next level, I highly recommend Blogshop. Click here to see if Bri and Angela are coming to your city. And if they're not, you can now sign up for an online version and learn from the comfort of your home. See more of the pretty little details of Blogshop ATX including the goodies we received on the Blogshop Blog.

{Images 3, 5, 6 taken by the Blogshop girls}

An inspiring quote for the budding creatives:

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” -Ira Glass

New Beginnings

Oh hey, February. This new year is already going by quicker than I'd like it to, though I'm quite ready for winter to be over. I've been busy working on my 2014 resolutions, of which there are many. This year I want to:

• Read 12 books. One for every month. This may not seem like a big goal for some, but I have a bad habit of starting several books at the same time and this will at least encourage me to finish what I begin.
• Acquire 6 new skills. I'm not sure which six I'll cross off my list, but I've been spending these first 2 months trying to learn how to rock climb. And all I can say so far is that it's not going as smoothly as I hoped.
• Travel to 4 new places. Since I can't spend 1/3 of the year traveling like I did in 2013, I think it's a reasonable goal to go somewhere new each season.
• Get involved in the community.

I'm probably most excited about this last goal. I've spent the last few months adjusting to a new city, all the while questioning whether it was really the right place for me. But now that I'm approaching the six-month hurdle, I can honestly say I feel more comfortable with where I am right now than I ever did throughout all of last year. I recently signed a 15-month lease on a new apartment--one of the most long-term decisions I've made in a while. Six months ago, this would have filled me with anxiety and uncertainty, but now I just feel content, which is a foreign feeling for me. While I'm not anywhere near ready to permanently plant my roots, I am looking forward to building real relationships with people, finding an ongoing volunteer opportunity, buying some furniture, and simply being okay with staying in one place for a while. This year I resolve to stop constantly worrying about what comes next and asking myself, "What am I doing?" Instead, I intend to be joyful in the place where God has led me and make the absolute most of it while I'm here.