Throwback: August 21, 2009

This may be old for some of you. Before this blog, I used to send out email "updates" to my friends and family. This one was sent out while my life was going through some huge changes. I found it recently and decided to share it with you! Being that I'm disgustingly sick right now (and therefore kinddaaa lazy), I thought this might be a good week to share...

It has been quite the summer. This summer brought a hailstorm of changes for many of my best friends, and of course, my family members. My little brother left for the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (commonly referred to as ‘MCRD’) for short. It was the weirdest feeling, watching him walk out the front door to be greeted by another Marine. It was the first time that I can remember in which my brother left me at home instead of the other way around. I missed him within minutes. He was my ally and secret supporter when we had disagreements with our parents. We would bond over $0.99 hot fudge sundaes from McDonald’s and lament over the fact that our parents do not understand us and we couldn’t wait to get out. The big day finally came, and he couldn’t have been more excited. Josh counted down the days to boot camp, and the nervousness didn’t seem to kick in until the morning of. We all got up at 2 am to see Josh off. Armed with nothing but the clothes on his back and a few sheets of important paperwork, my brother has started the journey to become a Marine. I’ve heard a lot of different things from different people—that he will come back a man, that he is going to be forever changed from his experience in boot camp, he is going to mature physically and emotionally… but secretly, I hope he doesn’t change too much. I miss the little dweb of a brother who used to annoy the crap outta me when I was trying to be too cool in high school. I still hope he’s the guy who would come check on me after a fight with my parents. He’d hear me sniffling in my room and sheepishly poke his head around the corner and ask if I was ok. He’d stay in my room and talk about pointless, dorky things only him and I found amusing until things didn’t seem so bad. I hope that much doesn’t change about him. When the world seemed to be falling all around me, my brother became the one to come comfort me, instead of the other way around. That’s the funny thing about sibling… they’re a built in annoyance and friend at the same time. But when you need them most they always seem to step up. 

One of my best friends got married this summer. I was honored and lucky enough to be part of the wedding.  I’ve known this girl since her freshman year of high school—back in the day when we used to fantasize about our wedding days. When it actually came, it was so surreal… like a very weird dream. To watch my best friend with her husband, to see her in her new identity as a WIFE was still mind-blowing to me. It was intoxicating to see her so happy and in love. It had been a while since I had been to a wedding and this was the first one that really hit home for me. Being able to witness and see their shared happiness and joy brought back all those ridiculous, girly, romantic ideals. I cried watching her sing a song to her new husband. It was such a happy, surreal day full of so much love. Ah, I love weddings. 

Another one of my best friends is starting to follow his dreams to become a firefighter. He starts the fire academy on Monday in which he will undergo intense physical and mental schooling. It was quite a feat to even be accepted into the academy as fire fighting has become a very competitive field. As budget cuts are happening all over the state, the firefighters are making their training more and more cutthroat. It’s always very interesting to see where life will take us, especially for us unemployed post-graduates. 

As for me, well I write this to you all as I sit on a plane to Hawaii. My internship starts on Monday, where my dreams are slowly starting to come true. I have no idea what is going to happen in four months or where I will be, but for now I will be on Oahu with an internship that pays nothing as I work 40 hours a week doing whatever the trainers might need. My dad jokes that I will be cleaning up dolphin crap- literally. We shall see, but as long as I get to work with dolphins I really don’t care. I know I say that now, and next week, you all might be receiving an email full of complaints about how all I do is clean out cigarette butts from the ashtrays. The one guaranteed thing I know is that once a week, I get to spend the entire day on the lagoon with a real dolphin trainer.

I am so incredibly excited that this is actually happening. I half cannot believe that I still held onto this childhood dream and now am on my way to Hawaii to work with dolphins. Even if it is just for four months and this dream ends in January, I am so lucky to have even gotten the chance to do this.  The other part of me feels so incredibly scared. I have no real plan—except to learn and work hard. A one way ticket to Hawaii and no definite return date??!?? Ok, that’s nothing to freak out about. Maybe in four months, I will be in Bermuda. Or settling down permanently in Hawaii. Or maybe back in the mainland somewhere. I have no idea where this internship will take me—and the unknown is thrilling, yet terrifying at the same time.

Weird to see how much life has changed... for all of us. So many drastic changes have happened over the past three years... it'll be interesting to see where the next three years will take me and what I'll be doing then. Alright, I'm sneezing all over the computer so I think I'll leave it at that.

Next time, minions!