I’ve always held a ridiculous amount of resistance against returning home post college-graduation. The pride that smudges my lenses tricks me into seeing coming back to Gig Harbor as if I haven’t grown out of it or found something bigger and better.

But because of the world’s current circumstances – life has invited me to lay down my pride and come home and reconnect with the community I love, and provide me he space to reflect on what’s behind me. I am wholeheartedly grateful for the humility and the rest my time in my favorite place has given me to cherish my roots before I head out to into what lies ahead.

I’m hoping to share more of the writing I’ve been up to lately because this pause in the world has provided me with a lot of creative inspiration and awareness of the holy spirit – I’m hoping to find the courage to share more of it again! However, I don’t think I could share about the pages post-grad until I acknowledged the end of the chapter that brought me to where I am now.

So, here’s a little blurb from our makeshift “graduation” ceremony on my front lawn. We painted a table we found in the dumpster for a podium, “walked down the aisle” of our cracked sidewalk barefoot, and an “I love college” remix served as our musical performance. Honestly, I don’t think I would have it any other way.

This unforeseen end to my time at Cal Poly was certainly laced with silver linings. Undoubtably, the most significant of these silver linings was the completion of a full-circle four year journey in our home.

…

Ben Rector says, “life is not the mountaintops, it’s the walking in-between.”

To me, this speaks boldly into the truth that perhaps it is not the peaks, but the valleys that we get to gaze back on and admire.

In fact, I don’t really care to remember much about the actual event of any college party or downtown Thursday, but, I will always remember having the time of my life dancing down the hallway half-dressed and screaming Beyoncé in the broom microphone

It was never a meal that meant anything much – but causing chaos stampeding through Cal Fresh and setting a table for company I cared for.

With the people I love, it is not even a breathtaking slo sunset, but the conversation and car concert on the way to the coast.

Hannah makes my morning cup of coffee the best part of my day, Lou squeezes in a tandem ride before class just to glean the neighborhood fruit trees, and Jenna makes my laugh hysterically just by the way she brushes her teeth

It is in the in-betweens, these little moments that I never anticipated would be my most meaningful.

And now, I know that it’s not about what you’re doing, but who you’re doing it with.

And although I have overwhelming gratitude for our ordinary moments – this home has been three years of anything but ordinary.

Together, we are…

A girl who defeated the odds stacked against her

A girl who unashamedly lets love guide her life

A girl who causes a wake with the way she loves

& me, sophisticated fun 😉

I wouldn’t want to mess with us.

Together we sold hundreds of fried eggs on this sidewalk, Jenna ELOPED three months ago, we have a style spectrum of consumer of the year to crocs in public, fricken Musty the Mustang lives in our house, we have a 100-pound girl who pours concrete in a hardhat, we are every cashier on Foothill’s favorite customers,

& sometimes, I think I have more fun before 8am than most people have in a week

We are an activist, an adventurer, an artist, and an athlete

Soon, we will be Folsom, Denver, Berkeley, and Seattle – & not 25 Chorro.

Soon, we will take what we’ve learned here – and use it to build community, build beautiful spaces, build equity, and build hope.

From Lou, I have learned to stare pain in the face and say “there must be more than this.” I have learned to not only press on, but rise up with joy and fuel yourself with hope. Our friendship has taught me that grace really does win every time.

From Jenna, I have learned that believing is not seeing. I have learned the importance of knowing myself and celebrating her and trusting her to guide me.

From Hannah, I have learned that it is a beautiful thing to change my mind. About people, about circumstances, about myself. Hannah has taught me that I rather than resisting change I can embrace it – and allow life to mold and shape and refine me.

In this home, I have learned to forgive, to listen, to stand up for myself, to not take myself too seriously, and to never settle for indifference.

This home for reminds me that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.