One Year Later

2014 has been a year of incredible growth for me. I can't thank the people in my life enough for supporting me through what has been one of my most challenging years yet. This year has been far from perfect, but I've learned so much about myself, my values, my passions and my future.

This is only the beginning.

Bad Feminist: Take Two

Bad feminism seems like the only way I can both embrace myself as a feminist and be myself, and so I write. I chatter away on Twitter about everything that makes me angry and all the small things that bring me joy. I write blog posts about the meals I cook as I try to take take better care of myself, and with each new entry, I realize that I'm undestroying myself after years of allowing myself to stay damaged. The more I write, the more I put myself out into the world as a bad feminist but, I hope, a good woman - I am being open about who I am and who I was and where I have faltered and who I would like to become.

No matter what issues I have with feminism, I am a feminist. I cannot and will not deny the importance and absolute necessity of feminism. Like most people, I'm full of contradictions, but I also don't want to be treated like shit for being a woman.

I am a bad feminist. I would rather be a bad feminist than no feminist at all.

-Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist

Mission:

Be better.

I think I'm doing okay so far.

Float On

"Sorry I got lazy toward the end."
Me too.

A Year in Review:

From Cedar Falls to Connecticut to Copenhagen and around the world and back -

thank you to the amazing people who made 2013 great.

"Study" Abroad

drinking with strangers on public transportation, lighting candles in Swedish churches, flødeboller, Danish kindergarteners, 6am nights out, mulled wine, days and nights at Tivoli, making friends with drunken Irishmen, #danishjude, 3 hour conversations with new friends, spontaneous sleepovers, shawarma for Thanksgiving, eating macarons on bridges in Paris, drunk on whiskey at 10am, æbleskiver and gløgg, Belgian beers, baby bites from 7-Eleven, drinking (illegally?) in the airport, jaeger bombs, 5 hour-long dinners, the awful taste of absinthe, béarnaise sauce, (European) baby fever, remoulade, being stuck in a Danish hurricane, fish and chips, challenging myself, happy hour at Studenterhuset, being mistaken for a Dane, star-filled night walks home, homemade risalamande, wine nights in front of the Eiffel Tower, daily hot dogs, tours of Europe’s fanciest ceilings, canal rings, amazing artwork and famous artists, julefrokosts, DIY dinners with my core course, Somersby apple cider, dancing the night away, hygge with friends, generous bartenders, the fjords, taking far too many pictures, ruin bars in Budapest, finding the perfect Christmas present for far-away friends and family, sudden bouts of kleptomania, learning to pour the perfect pint, never knowing what time it is, Irish coffee, the Struggle Bus, nature walks, Tuesday mornings at ASPA, Danish schnapps, getting lost in the middle of unfamiliar places, tea time with my hosts, Stockholm ice bar, Monday nights at the Viennese opera, Hungarian spring baths, dipping my toes in the Baltic Sea, laughing so hard I cry, climbing tall towers, Christiania, Lithuanian Christmas traditions, Björn the Norwegian, Hamlet’s castle, traveling alone, kind airport staff, J-Day 2013, Danish pride, blogging about it all, Tuesday nights out, minding the gap, Wednesday cinnamon snails, football matches, Jutland, learning to adapt, Midwesterners in Amsterdam, cozy beer bars and breweries, visiting 11 countries, changing my worldview, walking tours, trying/failing/improvising, accidentally staying in the Red Light District, double-decker bus tours, living like a local, fruit-flavored squash, questionable hostel plumbing, stroopwafels, positive psychology, foreign currencies, Carlsberg and Tuborg, taking pictures of kids at aquariums (in the name of "sociology"), Christmas markets, fancy smørrebrød, free rides on public transit, not understanding a word around me, falling "in slip" on the bus ride home, potlucks, drinks on the house, making lifelong friends and having the experience of a lifetime.