A New Beginning

It has been over a year since I posted here. Much has come and gone. Love has grown, and faded. Leaves have transformed into fire balls, fallen, emerged from buds a vibrant green, and fallen again. I have traveled across the United States three (and soon to be four) times. I've climbed mountains--seen beauty I believed long gone from this planet, and embraced trees larger than any I'd imagined growing up in the Midwest.

I finished my program in N. Minnesota and went West for a summer that ran into the fall. Applied for and accepted an AmeriCorps job in Washington state that fell through, and now will be working in far southern California as a naturalist. I am in Wisconsin until Christmas, when I will begin my 40 hour drive back west. I will take about 5 days to get there, stopping at the Grand Canyon on the way. I will be living in a community of 9 other naturalists and 2 wranglers at a ranch and outdoor science school. I'll be teaching classes to 5th and 6th graders from L.A.

I look forward to being outside again, living in the mountains, and meeting new people. It has been too long since I worked full time and it will be good for me and my heart. I think I will continue to heal from the breakup as I begin to learn about the land further south than I have ever lived. I will continue to miss the birch trees, but I am not sure I can ever again live without a view of the mountains.

I plan to keep this updated this year, and hopefully I do better than last year. Another goal of mine is to write people actual letters this year. So, email me your address!

-AZ