I haven’t blogged here in several weeks, even though I’ve had posts written and ready to publish. I guess sometimes blogging gets emotionally hard–hard to open yourself up and put yourself out there where anyone in the world can read about it.
With it being graduation season, I’ve been constantly reminded that it has been an entire year since I graduated from Tulane. If you’ve been reading this blog for some time, you’ll remember that my college days weren’t the most fun. College was an extremely stressful and hectic time in my life. The stress of classes, studying late into the night, not getting enough sleep, worrying about if I’d make the grades to keep my scholarship, worry about making sure I was choosing the right major, taking the right classes, and starting out onto the right career path, combined with the stress of being far away from family, missing out on family events, feeling not settled in a new place, and all the other stresses that go along with that. Drew and I also started a business and got married while in college–both great things, but also ones that can add additional pressure to an already stressful life. Mostly though, college was a sucky time for me because I had a lot of health issues. Extremely low energy, headaches, acne, minor weight gain, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (AKA: being sick every time I would ever eat anything!), and a slew of other random symptoms. After finally seeing the doctor several times and also a nutritionist, I found out I had both hypothyroidism and gluten-intolerance. Being able to make adjustments to my life based on those findings helped out tremendously, but it was still a great relief to finally graduate and be done with school.
Now that I’ve been out of school for an entire year, I have to say that being out of school is amazing. This last year has been a really tough year in many ways–the loss of my grandpa, excessive family drama, hurtful relationships, but it has also been pretty incredible too. The slightly-depressed-college-me has made many strides towards a happier self this past year. Working in a great environment with amazing people, furthering my art career, working on home and crafting projects that I didn’t have time for while in school, just being able to come home from work and make dinner then sit and read or crochet or paint or DO ANYTHING BUT HOMEWORK is so completely amazing.
A month or so ago, Drew and I grabbed our camera and tripod and drove a few streets over to take a few photos of ourselves. Why? You might ask, as some of our friends did when we said we had been taking pictures. My reply: I want to remember us at this moment in our lives.
Us with our cheesy, laughing, goofing-around grins and awkward bear hugs. Us on State Street, the street I drive down every day to get to work and back. Us in this beautiful city that we’ve fallen in love with. Us at this awesome time in our lives when we are fresh out of college, working hard together to figure out our finances and pay off Drew’s student debt to live financially free. Us working on DIY decorating projects in our apartment together, figuring out our married lives and enjoying this time of being young newlyweds (Are we still newlyweds? It’s been almost two years!). Working, painting, cooking, creating. Living healthy and gluten-free. Excited about dreams for the future– buying a house and having babies, but being completely content in this moment.
Even the smaller things that make up this photo– my favorite turquoise quatrefoil necklace (a gift from Drew), my favorite leather boots (a Christmas gift from my Dad), the subtle black and white pattern of my shirt, the jewel tones I’m wearing, my favorite jeans and gold watch (I wear so often I have a tan line around it), and my hair in its completely natural state. Mr. Beard and Button-ups over there wearing his “tassel-y shoes” and the watch I got him for Christmas. Those things all make up our style right now too. (Although I can’t believe how hot it has gotten over the last month since we took this picture, it is definitely way too hot for leather boots right now!)
I feel like this photo perfectly captures a little glimpse into this time of our lives. And I want to cherish and remember it.
