Refocusing

Now that the school year has started up, I find myself reflecting on the last few years of my life. Every year around mid August, I’d be packed up and preparing myself mentally and physically for school. Now, in late August, I find it strange that I have some free time to myself. It’s weird to feel unproductive when I’ve been taking classes or working since I started.

College was an awesome experience for me – I got to see a whole new world (literally) and learn about things I had no idea existed. My friends got me into modeling, then photography, and then I found a new community because of it. I learned so much more about people than I thought I ever would, became more patient with others and myself, and finally figured out a good method for navigating the world.

Chilly Firsts

Oh boy, is it chilly here. It’s nowhere near as bad as Michigan winters, of course, but it would have been nice to come here right out of a Michigan winter so I would think that this is warm. I miss the Michigan sun so much right now, I can hardly believe it. Especially since I came straight from summer, my body isn’t used to the lack of sunlight or temperatures below 70°. Whatever, I’ll live.

After getting in to the Cape Town airport at 9:20 (right on time!), my driver brought me to my loft for me to ring the bell and… have no one show up. Where were they?

Waxing Poetic About a New Adventure

Ascending into clouds is euphoric; nothing is on my mind other than wonder and awe.

Watching the clouds go past, seeing peaks and valleys and rivers in a sea of softness. It looks so solid, like it could be a land itself, but to put too much trust in something so beautiful would be unwise. I’ll continue to watch from below, and from above when opportunities arise. In lucky glances, I catch pieces of the patchwork of the earth – sections of land, so small and well organized from up here. Those small pieces are places to explore, fill of opportunity to collect another piece of the puzzle that covers our world. I’m drawn to wonder: what stories does that land hold, of people who live there, people who have died there, people who have visited?

Conclusions & Unknowns

For the first time since I was old enough for people to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I don’t know what the future holds. I don’t know what is around the corner of next year, or what’s to come in the following years. I really have no idea what life will look like for 30-year-old Emily.