Clean Slate

I am not a tidy person. Anyone who's ever lived with me or been close enough to see the inside of my room will know this-- although very few know what the floor looks like.

That said, for the past two days I have intentionally cleaned my room, and today I made my bed, did laundry, and vacuumed. Yes, mom, you read that right, I properly vacuumed for the first time since running over the cord accidentally-on-purpose 10 years ago.

This change of heart is partly because of the cluster of dead bugs in front of my door where I attacked the perimeter with Raid, and also something deeper that probably has to do with growing up and being responsible or something like that.

I've been introducing myself as 'Ms. Lastname', which is weird, as is purposely trying to obscure my identity right there. As an aspiring writer, I've been recently trying to gain all sorts of exposure to help publication, but now I've made my Twitter private and am close to doing the whole 'middle name' thing on Facebook, because although I don't think I post anything even remotely scandalizing, there's a whole new layer of accountability that goes along with working in a high school. I do hope to keep these blog posts open for all to read- and while I want to stay as true to life as possible, I'll have to tread a little more carefully.

But! Growing up hasn't been all red tape and accountability, or just super boring accomplishments like vacuuming. I've been going on real-person lunch meetings and testing my Spanish skills in everyday professional interactions. I've experienced a new level of freedom here, different from college in a nice sort of way. I'm within walking distance to downtown El Paso, technically walking distance to Mexico! I try to get out and about exploring as much as possible, including finding a new favorite tea house and reading/writing nook. I've been meeting lots of new people and for the first time in my life, am faring pretty great at staving off the shyness issue. With our new friend from Juarez, my fellow LV and I paged through a whole newspaper pullout advertising what's going on this month and circled about 50 events we want to get to. We picked up and drove to a wine tasting in New Mexico that didn't end up being quite what we expected, but those are the sorts of impromptu adventures I can't wait to experience in the coming year. (Side note- I've now been to four new states since graduation!)

Yesterday, the first day of school and my first day on the 'other side' of the school population, was definitely stressful, but today I feel like I'm getting into a nice routine. I'm seriously excited about the possibilities of collaborating with area non-profits and getting the students to become excited themselves about service, as well as helping them to grow spiritually. Everything is new, so that can be scary, but I want to look at it instead as a tabula rasa, a clean slate to begin again with the students I work with and my own path as well.

Blank pages are intimidating, but think instead of all the wonderful worlds they can hold. :)

[P.S., as promised- newest mail shout-out goes to Sam! Thanks for the surprise, I'll get you a proper reply soon.]