wanderlust.

155,000+ members strong, from sea to shining sea!

Well, it's been one of those weeks where you go home and throw down your bags and your coat goes on the floor and you think, "How am I ever going to go back to my normal life after that?" But days go on, even when you never really get around to unpacking that suitcase and clothes just end up rotating in and out for weeks after.

Interview Weekend at International Headquarters was such a big adventure, but even though it feels almost sacrilegious to let that go, it's been that sort of week where even all the normal days surprise you with many little adventures. 

In the big adventure, I traveled 500 miles from home and became INSTANT FRIENDS (it's true!) with 17 other incredible girls, a connection so honestly positive and possible simply because we choose, everyday, to Live with Purpose. 

In the little adventure, I walked 5.5 miles to an interview for part-time work, and while the hours ultimately didn't work out, my interviewer and I ended up simply chatting about our shared Greek experiences. 

These past few days, I have been on the move. My soul is caught up in wanderlust. To me, flying is still a Big Deal, emphasis on the capital letters. It is the ultimate independence, especially for a girl like me who's still struggling to get her driver's license. It's still such a crazy thing to me that we can wake up in one time zone and fly across the country to spend the working day in another. Crazy, but so beautiful at the same time.

Final update: I've put down my pride and applied for a student assistant position in the Multimedia Studio at school. YES, I will have NO weekends (hello Saturday 9am-6pm shift!), but also YES, I will get work done, and YES, I will have $$$. And again, pride put aside… $$$ does make the world go round. Or at least send a senior girl to her own sorority formal!! 

On that silly note, goodnight and love from yours truly.

run your heart.

valentine's weekend getaway in asheville, north carolina!

Load the car and write the note. / Grab your bag and grab your coat. / Tell the ones that need to know. / We are headed north.

Big breath. Exhale. Know that, instinctually, that if there was ever a defining moment for putting your game face on, getting your foot in the door, and leading the pack, well, this is it.

I am headed out this Friday to Indianapolis, Indiana for the Leadership Consultant Interview Weekend. When I get back, there'll be the addition of a new great-grand-little to our lovely family line to celebrate! Huzzah!!

i wish i was in dixieland!

When she came to the end of one life it must not be to face the next with the shrinking terror of something wholly different—something for which accustomed thought and ideal and aspiration had unfitted her. The little things of life, sweet and excellent in their place, must not be the things lived for; the highest must be sought and followed; the life of heaven must be begun here on earth.
-Anne of the Island, L. M. Montgomery

After a couple of rotations of my morning Brad Paisley playlist, I had the sudden impulsive desire the peek at my old home in Knoxville, Tennessee. No, not via four-hour vehicular journey. Through Google Maps, satellite edition!

I couldn't exactly remember my old address, but those numerous drillings instilled in all of us during kindergarten did some good and at least I remember old Shannondale Elementary. There it is, the funny tin-covered bus turnaround, the blacktop area only the big kids had access to during recess, and just up the road... well, I'm sad to say that my little Dixieland childhood home is gone! In its place are the cul-de-sac loops and angles of a well-planned suburban neighborhood. It's a little sad to think of all those old trees cut down and uprooted to make way for lawns and pavement, but I hope the new families there now enjoy it as much as I used to.

Just one paper between me and Asheville next weekend!