the wilderness year.
Hello again, dear blog.
It's August 6th, 2018 which means I moved to Seattle exactly a year ago! WHAT?!?! Who let time fly by that fast?
This time last year, I was just a few months removed from my time at Purdue because I realized I wasn't quite ready to be fully invested in that endeavor. I was ready for something different, some kind of change. The Northwest was calling + the Ashenbrenners welcomed me in.
I moved here without a job lined up (yet!) + boy was I scared. I wanted this time off from school to be worthwhile but I didn't know what that would look like.
Thanks to some mutual connections, I met my future rockstar of a boss, Steph. She took a huge chance on me + offered me a job to teach a 2-year-old preschool class. I, of course, accepted. Let me tell ya, BEST. DECISION. EVER. I love my job. My students, their parents, my co-teacher, my coworkers, my boss, EVERYONE has been so gracious to me in this funky, unknown chapter of my life. I didn't wake up a single school day this year and not want to go to work. What a huge gift.
One night in October, some preschool moms and teachers met for a 'book club' where we discussed Brené Brown's newly released Braving The Wilderness. She describes the wilderness as
"an untamed, unpredictable place of solitude and searching. It is a place as dangerous as it is breathtaking, a place as sought after as it is feared. But it turns out to be the place of true belonging and it's the bravest and most sacred place you will ever stand."
That sounded a lot like Seattle for me. Yes, we are literally surrounded by wilderness here, but I knew that even though I was surrounded by people, I had to learn to be okay doing things by myself sometimes. That's where true belonging comes in.
“True belonging is the spiritual practice of believing in and belonging to yourself so deeply that you can share your most authentic self with the world and find sacredness in both being a part of something and standing alone in the wilderness. True belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are; it requires you to be who you are.”
I'm kind of getting the hang of that.
I go to concerts alone. I've seen and met more of my favorite artists in the last year than I would have expected. That wouldn't be possible, though, had I not been willing to brave being alone in a concert venue full of strangers.
I travel to cities hours away just to see what they’re about.
I take the bus downtown just for fresh flowers from the market + Beechers Mac & Cheese.
I hike on unfamiliar trails just to see where they lead.
"The wilderness is calling and I must go"
Seattle is my wilderness— the place where I've learned to find comfort in being alone + belonging solely to myself, but knowing that I have a support system I can come home to.
here’s to more braving in the months ahead.
talk soon.
