26 and single

I'm getting closer and closer to my "one year" mark of being back in the US. I'm not there yet and I'm not going to rush it, but it is creeping up on me. When I first moved back I often received comments such as, "do you wish you were still in Paris?" and my answer was most likely an honest, yes! That question has become more and more rare the longer I've been back and adjusted to life here and the reality of it all setting in, but occasionally I still get asked that question and my answer has changed from "yes" to "no, but I wish aspects of that life would have followed me."

My first trip to Paris was something magical. It's hard to explain to people who have never had an experience like mine, but it was as if my life suddenly made sense. Call me crazy, but it is the truth. In one week I had decided that I NEEDED to live in Paris and less than 1.5 years later I was living and working there. So many things about my life in Paris helped me to better understand myself, love myself, and accept myself. Coming back to Texas, I've had to deal with a lot of the things I struggled with as a child and a teenager. 

In Paris, maybe even France, it is not the cultural norm to be married young. In fact, as a nanny for a family of "elementary" aged children, it was the oddest thing the first couple of months I was there to walk the kids to school and notice the age of the other parents. In fact, the family I worked for, who at the time their kids were 4 and 6, were probably over 40. Here in the south that is the completely opposite. As with everywhere in the world, not everyone fits a mold. I did know some young people who were married, but the point I'm getting at is that there is no expectation there to be hitched by the age of 25. You are not considered an old maid if you are still not married in your late 20's or early 30's. It was so freeing to be in a place where I didn't feel pressure to constantly be on the prowl or that everywhere I went I needed to act as if "Mr. Right" might come waltzing into my life and I should be ready. Sure, we girls went on dates, swooned over boys and all that jazz, but there was such a lack of pressure in that world. Like I said, it was so freeing. Fast forward to my life changing and now I am living in Texas, not technically the south but really, its the south. As weird as it sounds to say this, I really had to rediscover a lot about myself that was suddenly questioned or somehow misplaced during my move. I mean, it was a long move and many things were misplaced, but I never thought my confidence in certain areas would be one of those. I remember at Christmas a family member said to me, "Kara, I haven't given up hope on you yet" in reference to me being happily single at 25. The girls I have met around this part of town are sharing in the same sentiment. That if they are my age and single then they need to give up on life and start hoarding cats. And I have to completely disagree and completely not relate one bit. 

I've never been a girl to feel the need to be in a relationship. I am a strong, independent and free person and there is no one in this world that is going to convince me that being married is the answer to lifes problems. In college, nearly all my best girlfriends were married, in serious relationships or got married so I am no stranger to marriage. (my theory on married friends: you get 2 for the price of 1. its great. I chose the girl but I got the guy as well, no better way to finding friends I'd say) 

So the point of this blog is to say that I am happily single and I am confident in that statement. 

But.... the reason I wrote all of this is because a good friend of mine recently posted a link online to an article that I wanted to share. It's not often that I find someone who has put into words things I can not express myself, but here goes:

The boy I want to find...

Read this article and it accurately sums up the type of person that I am and that I would be happy to share in life with. I am sure that most people will not understand this type of person and would not share in my ideal type of person, but thats ok, because I am no the typical southern gal. I am a revised version. 

So. There you have it. 

book recommendation

Looking for a book recommendation??

I always am.

Well, good for you, I have one! {yipee!}

My dad was the one who gave me this book to read and it took me a bit to get into into, mostly because I like to start many books and never fully commit to one. But once I did, I did NOT regret it.

It's called The One-Week Job Project and the synopsis is easy enough: 1 guy, 1 year, 52 jobs.

It may sound crazy but really, its genius! This guy, Sean, graduates from college in Canada and has no idea what he wants to be when he grows up. He comes up with this idea that he is going to doing a different job every week for one year. It's quite interesting the things he learns along the way from his experiences and from what each employer teaches him. It's broken down into 52 short (and by short, I mean short) chapters which makes it easy and fun to read because you don't need to have a lot of time just to get through one chapter and he writes very simply. There is a bit of romance and some on the edge of your seat moments, but for the most part its light hearted and just a fun read. I found this book to be applicable to my life because while I may not have just graduated from college, I have found myself in a place where I question regularly what I want to do with my life as I search for jobs. Sean addresses this deep question with each employer and the end result is that most every one of the 52 bosses have the same things to say.

I hope you find it as enjoyable as I did.

Happy readings!

mini vacation

I just returned back from a mini vacation and it was wonderful. I really only think to write about here when I "leave" my home and go somewhere different because my everyday life here in Texas seems to be do mundane and uninteresting to anyone, much less myself. So, every once in a while life demands that you (who can) go on mini vacations, whenever you can (middle of the week? ok) and do something a little different. For me, this looked like visiting my best friend in her new home of Austin, Texas. 

My best friend and I have known each other since we were in 7th grade. We have been super close at times and mere aquaintances at others, but one thing has never changed and that is that we have always been there for each other. We both agree that we were just "meant to be" friends. Our life paths have been nothing alike yet we always seem to be in the same place at the same time. For instance, she married at 18, right out of high school and moved out of state. I struggled to find a college to accept my horrible high school grades and barely made it out of the city. But no where where we were, we have always found that we related in a much deeper way that only we could understand. We both struggled our way through our final year of college, not giving up because of the encouragement of the other. She even came with me on my family (the WHOLE family) vacation one summer, just because. I moved to Paris, her and her husband backpacked through Europe before moving to Africa (staying in my Parisian apartment, no bigger than 100 square feet for a little under a week). And our latest adventures have brought us closer, understanding the loneliness one feels upon being the "new kid" in town, especially when our hearts are in other countries, far, far away. 

Recently, her husband changed jobs which caused them relocate to a city a few hours away. We have both struggled with the unknowns and unfamiliarities of being in a new place and trying to start life all over again; neither of us with a solid group of friends yet. So this weekend, after her family had come back in town for a visit, I decided it was a good chance to take a mini vaca and bum a ride back to Austin with her and spend a couple of days living the good life. (And by good life I mean that we ate our way through the city and taking naps in the afternoon, required by her almost 1 year old). 

Sometimes I find it can be so easy to get so overwhelmed by your day to day life. Whatever that may look like. Being a mom, being an adult, being unemployed or employed. Whoever you are, where ever you are, I am sure you have found yourself in that spot many times. I find myself there a bit more often than I'd care to admit these days, but there is one thing I can say that reverses that, and that is some quality time with some quality people. And a change of scenery sure does not hurt. 

These past few days were exactly what the doctor ordered. Forced relaxation. (I finished a book I'd been dying to finish!!!) Fun. Laughter. And time spent with people who you don't need to explain yourself to because they just get it. 

There have been a lot of lessons that I've been learning over the last months since I moved back from my experience of living in the wonderful Paris; lessons I'm sure we could all stand to learn. I'd be willing to bet that there are many people I could relate to in this season of life. Sometimes I wonder if I should expose myself to the world wide web. But most of the time I find I am scared to even expose myself privately, to a personal journal. That soon will need to change if I am to fully bloom from the caterpillar into the beautiful butterfly. 

But in the mean time, I am a bit rejuvenated from what I think is a necessity in life, and I'm so glad I had this opportunity. Good friends are hard to come by, which is why I'm not looking to get rid of mine anytime soon!!! 

Have a great week, all!

returning {home}

I just got back from a two week vacation in Paris and it was wonderful as it should be where I spent my 5th consecutive birthday celebrating in the city of light. We'll see how long this tradition lasts. I went with a list of things I wanted to do and I didn't even accomplish half of the list because my days were spent mostly catching up with friends and eating. I spent the last two weeks making up for my lack of eating out for the past two years. And now my bank account shows that. But it was worth it, to see the city in a whole different way. As a tourist and not a broke resident. And I also learned that no matter how much French behavior I may have picked up, I doubt I will ever loose my southern roots of being friendly because I somehow made a way of making friends with nearly every waiter in the city. Hey, it makes the dining experience a bit more exciting if you ask me. No harm, no foul, right? The city lived up to all my expectations of being cold and dreary, allowing the sun to come out a little but not enough to warm up and even giving me half an hour of snow on my last day there. Oh Paris, how I love you!

 

 

 

 

 I was able to visit two of the families I worked for when I lived there, go to disney, visit the top of Galleries Lafayette (one of my favorite serene places in Paris), have champagne atop the Eiffel Tower, eat at my favorite Thai restaurant twice, and walk enough to make sure all the food I was eating did not stay on my hips. It was the most exhausting two weeks, I am not rested after this vacation, but I honestly wouldn't have changed a thing. It's a weird thing feeling like you have two lives on opposite sides of the world, but yet I am super happy with those two lives how they are. It's hard having your best friends live 7 times zones apart but we make do. Now, on to working on making friends in my current time zone... 

Off to go dream and work towards my next vacation (My, I really am becoming French...)

Love, me