Life Update of August 2023

This is it. This is the post we’ve all been waiting for.

Walter Bishop at the beginning of Fringe, “So much has happened here, and so much is about to.” So it is in the spirit of Dr. Bishop, I continue.

*screams excitedly*

It’s almost mid-August and I’m writing this on a Sunday. I don’t usually have a specific day for writing posts, but hopefully someday soon, I’ll be more organized. I have just done a huge deep clean of my room, which honestly feels like an apartment (without the kitchen sink, stove, or the bathroom but I do have my own mini fridge and tea station, so there’s that). The deep clean started at 11am and continued until 3. I swept, washed all my mugs and my kettle, deep cleaned the fridge, put away the piles of clothes (we all have them), wiped down all the surfaces (including my lamp), and now I’m ready to write this post.

Honestly, I’ve been ready to write this post for a while but didn’t because I hadn’t spoken to people in my real life, and the flesh-and-blood people have the honor of getting to know things first. I’ve been sitting on a piece of this news since March, and another since May, and I’m sorry to have kept it from you. But I do believe in taking some time to reflect before letting the world in.

I haven’t written a life update since January 2022, which means a lot has changed. When I wrote that life update, I was in college at the University of Virginia, excited but also uncertain about what was to come. There was so much I didn’t know. I didn’t know that I’d be unemployed for so long. I didn’t know that I’d be doing a gap year, of sorts. I didn’t know that post-grad life was going to hurt and where it was going to ache. I don’t even think I knew if I was going to Israel at that point in time.

So here’s what I know now… 

In January of 2023, I started a fellowship program for spiritual growth, and that has been lovely. I’ve been challenged in ways I couldn’t have imagined. There’s so much to faith I havent’t even grapple with, and this program is only the beginning. (Maybe I’ll do a post on it, and all the things I’ve learned.) 

But also I’ve been applying to grad school. Which I’ve mentioned here and there on this blog. I applied to three schools between November and December. In a chaotic turn of events, the week of my friend’s wedding, which I shared here, was the week I received a rejection from a job I 100% felt confident I would get and the final yes for a grad school program. 

I can’t tell you how much it hurt. It was so hard to be excited for a potential grad school when an opportunity you are so sure of to your bones slips through your fingers. 

In April, I visited this grad school. Fun fact: when I was in high school, I visited this school with my classmates. I remember one of the teachers, Mr. Lesser, walking around amazed at all the statues and cool things we were seeing. I remember saying that I never wanted to go to school here, or in New York City, in general. And yet, as Justin Bieber says, never say never. Life (or God) has a way of making you eat your own words. Perhaps it’s humility. Or maybe it’s to show us that we can make good lives out of things we would never ask for.

In May, after a ton of deliberation and prayer (and general silence in prayer), I decided to commit even with the uncertainties. You may not always see a way but sometimes the way is made while you are on the way. (I hope that made sense.)

I am officially this week (actually this Wednesday, the day you’re reading this) starting my orientation for this grad program.

I am officially a grad student at Columbia University School of Journalism. (Don’t ask me how I got in. I still don’t know. But my friend Karen had way more faith in me than I did.)

I will officially be wandering around Morningside Heights and more parts of New York City at least for a year. I am crossing my fingers, hoping it won’t be more than a year, but I don’t know where the end of this program will bring me.

That’s the thing about graduating college: there’s no more roadmap. You and God carve out a road together. Sometimes life pulls when you pull and sometimes it pushes. But I will say this: you always get back on your feet. (This reminds me of high school’s Field Day where we would go to Marine Park. Get into teams and then duke it out for tug-of-war champions.) It may not feel like you expected or longed for, but you get back on your feet and you continue to find your way.

Well folks, the news is out. If you would like to make a donation to my very expensive education fund, please let me know. If you have any advice, I’ll take it. 

A little taste of August sonically

the mood I’m in by The Maine (BEST SONG ON THE ALBUM)

leave in five by The Maine

Rolling Rock by Lily & Madeleine (reminds me of A Fine Frenzy, the nostalgia is so damn heavy)

Holy Ghost by Chris Renzema (keep your eyes peeled!)

I promise I won’t let another year go by to do one of these again! Will update you in December or January.

Signing off,

Gigi

Let me know if you have any news you want to share!