radical sabbatical: transitions/honoring my travels

It was difficult to come off of my trip to San Francisco and readjust to being a full-time (unemployed) adult in DC. I suddenly had all this time on my hands to just be with myself, and live with my insecurities and neuroses. And oh the neuroses! The inner tape that constantly plays messages about how I'm not doing enough, but I'm also during too much, and crap my checks got lost in the mail, and I haven't sent out enough job applications, and my room is a mess, etc etc. But I think during these transition times some wailing and protesting from myself is to be expected, and I am trying to be compassionate and patient with myself. There are a lot of joys to be found in alone-ness too - sleeping in, enjoying leisurely breakfasts with hot tea and the paper, taking brisk walks to enjoy the sunshine when I feel like it, reading, practicing mindfulness. I've also spent the last week or so enjoying a visit with Kaitlyn, consulting for a few hours at my old office, going climbing, enjoying the UNC victory over Duke, honoring the memory of a friend, working with a grassroots community organization, and finally getting a VA license.

On Monday I heard back from an organization that I thought was going to be a long shot, and ended up getting an interview offer! I went through a pretty serious 2 hour long interview yesterday and was asked for my references today, so hopefully I'll get some good news. I felt calm and confident while I was there, and I met some great people who are doing work I believe in, and I feel excited and good about the experience. There's definitely a part of me that wants to play it down because it's still not a sure thing and I don't want to be disappointed, but for now I'm going to allow myself to be excited, and get my hopes up. :) Now that there's a chance that I'll be employed again soon, I wanted to take some time to revisit and process my trip to Asia. I realized today that part of me hasn't really wanted to upload all my photos and post my travel entries in this blog because it means having to really say goodbye to the experience, and to acknowledge that they are firmly in the past. It means I have to confront that all I have of that time now are the photos, and my words, and my memories, which are rich and vivid and full, but only an approximation of what it was like to actually be in Taipei, or at the ruins of Ayutthaya, or in the clear blue waters of Koh Chang. But it's important to remember the experiences again, honor them, thank them for what they taught me, and fully dedicate myself to being here now.

So I will start posting edited versions of the emails I sent to Megan telling her about the day-to-day experience of my trip. This is mostly for my benefit so I have a centralized place for all of them - you're definitely not obligated to read them (or really any of this!) if you don't want to. But if you're interested in the nitty gritty "here's what I saw and ate and felt and thought" of my trip, this is the best way of reliving it with me. :) You can also supplement the experience by checking out all my pictures on Flickr. Here we go.