Woah, so it’s been centuries since I’ve written here. Yikes.

These past few months have been crazy in a wonderful way. I left a job I poured my heart into for three years, got on a plane and went to rural Nepal to start a new career the next day, and jumped right back into a new NYC office the day after landing in JFK with nearly 48 hours of no-sleep travel. (Xanax, you failed me.)

Then I signed a new lease. Started cooking way more of my meals. Aaand I’m trying to get back into some semblance of endurance shape (marathon training starts kinda soon?), though every run I go on I feel like an out of shape mess. (I didn’t run in Nepal. I wanted to but I forgot to pack socks…)

bayalpata hospital in achham, nepal

Alas, life is good. How can it not be? I’m really loving my new job, and getting to spend my first two weeks in Nepal to see the actual work we are doing was incredible, and I’m so grateful for it. (The trip in and of itself deserves some writings, but I’m lacking the motivation.) Aside from work, I’m spending a ton of time outside, and know the rest of the summer will be filled with hikes, camping trips, and outdoor shows. I feel lucky, as always, to be enjoying this 20-something life where I’m striking a better balance of a professionally intense job with quality time to recharge and enjoy other important parts of my life.

Anyways, what got me thinking to write again wasn’t a ‘heres-an-update-on-how-I’m-feeling-about-summer,’ but rather a simple reflection I had the other day:

When ‘cleaning’ my room I found a book on the history of India I bought back in March. I’ve been obsessed with India for awhile now, and got it so I could learn everything about the country before (what my thinking was at the time…) quitting my job and backpacking there this summer.

Of course that didn’t happen, nor did I believe it really would. But had you told me when I purchased the book that in two months I would be traveling in Nepal, India’s next-door neighbor, as the kick-off to a new and incredible career, I would have been shocked.

Had you told me a year after my first 10-mile run (at a 9min pace?) I would’ve run two marathons and come away with a BQ, I would’ve laughed..a lot.

Had you told me Melissa, who I knew for three weeks in DC, would become one of my closest friends and future Brooklyn roommate and would also become amazing friends with my partner-in-crime Nicole (who is moving two blocks away from us!) I wouldn’t have believed it. At all.

I could go on and on: the days I scoured Idealist.org post graduation, wanting to work for a nonprofit but lacking the on-paper skills. Or visiting my brother in Greenpoint back in college and convincing myself I’d never move to NYC. Or stalking pictures of California/the PNW on The Internet, dreaming of running the trails there.

stinson beach trail race in muir woods

Basically, what I’ve learned is this: life will take you to awesome places, you’ll accomplish more than you believe you can, and things have a way of working themselves out. I’ve also learned you have to work your ass off to make it happen, and the fruits of your labor may not be visible (picked? eaten? weird idiom..) immediately.

Lastly, don’t rule anything out. Be open to change, to uncertainty, to trust that with hard work and a resilient spirit, good things will happen.