life goals

August. Bears. And Taylor Swift

A lot going on at the moment

Air miles:19,779

Train miles: 836

Auto miles:~1478

Boat miles: about 60

Since August 1, I saw the most popular concert in my lifetime. {It was amazing.} I made and traded friendship bracelets with strangers/ new friends. {So much fun and really cool to see international Swifties come up with some neat ideas–My favorite Je suis Calme.} It was a whirlwind of transportation {planes USA –> Canada –> Switzerland –> Germany –> Poland–> Germany–> USA] and everything aligned just perfectly to get me to Poland and back in time to take a final exam–wait what?!?. Yeah, right in the middle of all this chaos I had a final exam on Aug 5.

After seeing Taylor in Warsaw on August 3, I high-tailed it back to South Carolina in order to sit for my Psychopharmacology Final. (That I won a silver medal in. In honor of the Olympics, I’ve decided to rename grades Gold, Silver, and Bronze because anything less than 82.9 on any exam., final, or class is my one way ticket out of the program. 9 more months…9 months to go until graduation)

 

Sparkly. Swiftie. Ready to party

Holy crap. It’s Taylor!!!

you’re right, I do

After that emotional weekend, I hit a Trauma-Informed Care conference (required training), and then a different whirlwind in a different direction. Off to Alaska. To see the bears I’ve loved since 2014. Sadly no Otis, but still BEARS! Big giant brown bears. So close I could almost touch one. (I didn’t; I know better, even though I don’t act like it most of the time).

oh you are a sexy beast

Gully–I love how happy you are about catching a fish

It’s the BEADY BUNCH–a bunch of girl bears is a force of nature

Colbert–I love being your BBF (best bear friend) said her #164 Bucky Dent

I get this way too after too much food or too long of a hike

It’s all still so overwhelming–seeing two things in three weeks that I often wondered if I’d eve see. Personally, I feel like I’ve turned a corner. Breaking up with a long term partner is never easy. Even if it is the right thing to do. Even if the reasons make sense. When you have love a person, faults and all, and then that person is no longer in your life, it’s human nature to feel like a failure. I’ve experience a lot of loss and misdirection in the last two years, but I finally feel like I’m back on track. Thanks to the bears at Katmai and a singer called Taylor Swift.