What S Wants

I'm sure everyone has a role model. Sometimes you don't have one right off the top of your head, and other times you quickly know who yours is. Mine is my younger sister. Yes, younger sister. My sister is one of my favorite people. She is SO self-aware, way more than any other 20 year old I know. She doesn't succumb to peer pressure and does what her heart tells her. She has always been more mature than her friends, spending less time on petty drama and more time trying to change the world. In college she worked for Presidential campaigns and Howard Dean's pet project Democracy for America.

This summer she spent at our old sleepaway camp, something that I never would have done during a summer back from college, always too afraid I would miss too much with friends at home. In the fall she'll be in Scotland studying abroad and in the spring in DC for another internship in the political field. Even though sometimes her nerves get the best of her, she knows that these experiences will shape who she will become. And so she pushes herself to try new things even if it can cause some discomfort at the beginning. I have always admired and yes sometimes been jealous of her cavalier attitude towards being away from home.

I visited her at camp this past weekend, and fell back in love with her joie de vivre. I turned around and looked if I could find my own. I found very little. Commence, breakdown. Her love of all experiences good and bad in college, camp, love, and life, made me question my own. I graduated 2 years ago and fell into a job that I quickly realized wasn't for me. It was heartbreaking, I loved learning in college, I loved my major. And what had it been used on? An office job where I am sitting at a desk for 10 hours a day. About a year in, I found the Natural Gourmet Institute, a culinary school focused on nutrition and health supportive cooking. I knew this had to be my next step. After a year and a half, I applied, got in and starting going part time alongside my full-time job.

Now here I am, a quarter into the program, and looking for more. I live outside NYC one of the greatest cities in the world and am looking for more. From this breakdown, I decided I need to make changes, some small and some large to make my life more enjoyable to capture back my joie de vivre. This is my journey.

-S