Twenty...something. (Part 2)

You may have seen this before, but life is beautiful.

Fall in the DC area has seemed especially beautiful to me this year. I guess it's because I haven't spent one here for 5 years. Fall was beautiful in Ohio, too, and I think it was in Omaha but I can't remember - it was such a busy, emotional, intense people-filled time. (I know that football happened.)

This fall, I've had the privilege to go for walks and runs in many different parts of the area - on the trails I grew up on, in the farmers' markets of Kensington and Silver Spring, Columbia Heights and Dupont Circle, the neighborhood. I wonder if I've been thinking about the beauty because, for the first time in a long time, I've had time and space to think. Sure, underemployment has been in the back of my mind since August, but recently I've thought more about enjoying the space it's giving me.

And, wonderfully weirdly and unexpectedly, the opportunities. I've gotten to interview everywhere from right on U Street, to Hyattsville, to Rockville, to the freakin' Audubon Naturalist Society in good ol' Chevy Chase right off of Jones Mill Road that I went to in elementary school. Every interview opportunity, I've recently realized, has given me the opportunity to get to know my home all over again. And begin to think about calling it home in a new way, as an Anna with some new experience under the belt that I wear almost every day.

This has been my twenty something so far. Leave high school saying goodbye to wonderful friends, and go to college, and go to El Salvador, and go to Spain, and live in a brand-new U.S. city for a year and see more of the country, and make a ton of wonderful friends of all ages and walks of life, and then come home with all those new experiences and friends in my life AND get to re-connect with home, and old friends again. Discover and learn about the world and myself along the way, and the whole time, particularly when the going gets tough, try my hardest to remember that I have an incredibly wonderful, interesting, dynamic, supportive family. Especially the immediate ones. Mom, Dad and Daniel, I love you so much.

I am the luckiest lady I know.

So. Now what? What am I gonna do now that I think I want to be here for at least another year and a half?

For a little while longer, I gotta keep writing cover letters. Keep working part-time in the office at Saint Luke. Thanksgiving came early for me this year, when I realized just how fortunate I am to have a good job this fall - it may be the not very mentally stimulating tasks of opening doors, stapling bulletins, and stuffing envelopes, but I get to work in a comfortable environment and I also get to work in a food pantry.

Keep counting my blessings. I am especially grateful this time for the ones that currently live within a 10 mile radius.

And, as Jamie Cullum sings, "I'm a twenty something and I'll keep being me."

That is so wonderful. And beautiful.

Twenty...something. (Part 1)

Thank goodness I posted about "Fly" last week, because it reminded me to listen to it again. Still need to work on that "Songs to Cheer You Up" playlist.

There have been quite a few articles out about twenty-somethings lately. I've most recently read this one:

http://www.washingtonian.com/articles/people/21277.html

Then, there's the New York one (featuring a very famous Obie on the cover):
http://nymag.com/news/features/my-generation-2011-10/

And, the first one I read, I think, from the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html

A Google search of the "word" "twenty-something" revealed two more fascinating finds, one I'd forgotten about and one I'm now happy to know exists:

"Twentysomething", by Jamie Cullum

aanndddd.....guess what online community I just joined!
http://www.20sb.net/

I feel fascinated with this phrase tonight because it describes my current state right now in more ways than one. I'm 23, a month and a half away from 24, AND I'm trying to do...something. To be something.

What is that something? Everyone talks a lot about how hard it is to get a job these days, and I wouldn't disagree with that with the national unemployment rate at 9%. (Can we pause there for a second? This number means that it is quite possible that, when you consider the groups of people that you know in groups of 100, 9 of them don't have a job right now. Of course, there are factors that won't make that true for everybody, but I need to go to bed soon-ish so maybe I'll blog about those another time.)

But I will fully acknowledge that part of the reason I haven't gotten more fully employed in the past few months is because I'm not sure what my something is. As Cullum sings about, I've gone to college and gotten my head stuffed full of knowledge and life experiences. And then LVC. So now...what? Where? Why? When? HOW?

Plus love and family.

But sometimes you go to bed and wake up and everything feels clearer.

So, on that note, here's a good song by John Mayer (who now looks kind of like Johnny Depp), and this will be continued, because it can be more specific than it is now.

"Fly"

Currently listening to ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Thanks to Ms. Kerryanne Miske for tipping me off to this song, originally. It's a good one for the "Encouragement (During Un(der)employment)" list. The music video's a little nuts, but I lovee the song.

Another song I am loving right now is Nickelback's "When We Stand Together." I've never really been a huge fan of Nickelback, but their new song has such a wonderful, wonderful message...and I think it's actually musically better than their songs that have been about things such as wanting to be a rock star and live in a big house.

Well. Now that you've gotten the musical update...

What a crazy busy fun Halloween weekend, full of Halloween-y and not Halloween-y things. A grand mix of the old and new...parties with old friends, second Oberlin Alumni Club of DC gathering as a real alum, party at my wonderful next door neighbors' house - without the rest of my family there - with people who remembered me age 10 and under, and giving out the trick or treat candy instead of going around to get it. I've been "on the other side", as we were saying, for awhile now, but it was so fun to get to do it again at my own house.

I am a lucky girl, because I had TWO job interviews today, and they both went well. And lately I have just been SO incredibly grateful for the opportunity to work at church. I confess that I wasn't wild about doing it when I first got back, even though I had no other job prospects. Today, one of my interviewers joined the chorus of people who have told me, "Geez, I sure feel sorry for your generation" - she said, "When I graduated, Clinton was president." That was the first time I had thought about it in that way, and it makes a lot of sense. I was 4-12 during those years, and life seemed pretty solid. It may have been because I was 4-12...but I feel like there were other reasons, too.

I'd like to write more, but I am pretty wiped from the crazy Halloween stuff! Also, I took a nice long drive out to Laariland Farm today and picked some apples and broccoli, so that probably has something to do with it too. The broccoli is the best broccoli I have ever tasted - very good looking and full of flavor. SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL FARMERS!!!

More later.