What Am I Doing With My Life? and other minor conundrums...

Well guys.

I made the leap. I left my beautiful East Coast life to come back to Utah for school.

When I really think about it, I am kind of confused as to why I did what I did... (see below)

Pros of Staying in DC
-Fantastic roommates
-An adorable (cheap!) apartment in a great location
-Lots of real, fun friends
-Great ward with a bishopric who loves me!
-GREEN EVERYWHERE
-A job I like where I make lots of money
-Happy! I am (was) so HAPPY!

Pros of Moving to UT
............


You're probably thinking, "Well what the heck Jenna! Why did you ever think it was a good idea to leave DC??"

And I will tell you, "You know, I don't really know why I thought it was a good idea. I'm still not sure it was a good idea. But I'm acting on faith here, and hoping that that faith wasn't misplaced."

Because the truth is, I've felt compelled to return to this dry, arid motherland for months. Maybe that was me misreading the Spirit, but boy I sure hope not. Either way, here I sit, in the motherland. In a green chair in a lonely corner of the library at SLCC, to be exact. I'm trying really hard to stifle my superiority complex and find the good in this place. I'm trying really hard to give this all I've got. Because I made the leap. I took a chance, even if it was a stupid one. I'm chasing dreams.

In the wise words of the late Marina Keegan,

We’re so young. We’re so young. We’re twenty-two years old. We have so much time. There’s this sentiment I sometimes sense, creeping in our collective conscious as we lay alone after a party, or pack up our books when we give in and go out – that it is somehow too late. That others are somehow ahead. More accomplished, more specialized. More on the path to somehow saving the world, somehow creating or inventing or improving. That it’s too late now to BEGIN a beginning and we must settle for continuance, for commencement.

What we have to remember is that we can still do anything. We can change our minds. We can start over. Get a post-bac or try writing for the first time. The notion that it’s too late to do anything is comical. It’s hilarious. We’re graduating college. We’re so young. We can’t, we MUST not lose this sense of possibility because in the end, it’s all we have.

Observations from a Metro Expert

Remember this post last year when I lost my veritable metro virginity and hated it?

Well now, after over a year of riding the metro almost every single day, I still don't really love it, but I have learned a lot. So please allow me to impart some of my wisdom to make your metro experience a little less painful:

1) Stand on the right side of the escalator if you're not going to walk up/down it, for crying out loud!

2) When you're coming into the metro tunnel and you feel the strong whoosh of wind, that means that both trains are coming at once, and they're almost to the platform! So walk faster if you want to catch one!

3) If you see a fairly populated car and one person sitting alone in the corner, there's probably a good reason for that. So to avoid having to deal with a weirdo, just pick a different car.

4) You don't have to wait for the fare gate to close after the person in front of you! It holds up the line!

5) The blue and red seats are less contaminated than the yellow and orange seats. Remember that.

6) Always wash your hands after holding onto the metal bars. Because those bars are not public health.

7) The drivers leave the doors open for longer when the trains and platforms are really crowded. So calm down! You're gonna get on!

Yeah yeah, so maybe I still have a love/hate relationship with the metro. But I've been feeling mostly love lately, what with all this building nostalgia and all. The other day I was riding home, squeaking wheels on the rickety track, and as we shot out of the tunnel into the daylight, I looked around at all the people and had to quell the urge to hug them all, grip their shoulders, and say, "Listen to me! I'm leaving this place!! Don't you understand?? I have to go and you get to stay and I hope you know how lucky you are!"

But that would have been weird. So I looked out the window instead.