Waiting... but I can't wait.

My life is about to go through some pretty serious changes, most of them pretty exciting. There's some disappointments. I'll miss my friends, my biking partners, my band, the Flatirons, maybe even all of the snow, but I'm ready for something new. Funny that I still love Boulder, I'm having a lot of fun, but can't keep my mind on what's happening now and I am constantly thinking about the next few weeks to months to years. So despite some recent fantastic snowboarding, an awesome bike ride down steep hills in the snow today, I feel like I'm just waiting for the time to pass. Here are the things I'm waiting for...

Graduation: I just finished up my undergraduate senior honors thesis making graduation this May seem eminently close. I think April will be a long month regardless. I am burnt out on school and suffering from some pretty severe senioritis (I may die from it...) My thesis work with nuisance algae (Didymosphenia geminata) in Boulder Creek came out fairly interesting though and my thesis advisors suggested I get it ready to submit to a journal! That part I'm fairly excited about, but as far as everything else school related goes, we all know I'm not failing any of my classes, can I just have the piece of paper now and be over with it?

June Adventures: On May 31st the lease for the house I'm staying in should end starting one of the more anticipated events of my life. Roadtripping, biking, hiking, backpacking, climbing, caving, canyoning, camping, kayaking, swimming, goofing off, being ridiculous and being irresponsible, just to name a few of the activities that will be involved at potentially some of the following places Rocky Mountain National Park, Winter Park, Sol Vista, Mount Elbert, Vail, Eagle, Glenwood Springs, Fruita, Ruby Horsethief Canyon, Moab, Arches, Canyon Lands, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Paria Canyon (got the permit in the mail today!), Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, and i-40 all the way home to NC for perhaps some final adventures in Pisgah. Of course, as much as I'm excited about doing these things, at these places, I'm more excited about the company than anything. A good friend, pen pal and fellow biocyclologist, Megan, is flying out to meet me in Denver on May 24th and I cannot wait to see her again, let alone tear about the West with her. On April 1st she had me convinced for about 30 seconds that she couldn't come. If I hadn't remembered what day of the year it was for another minute or two I may have started crying. Needless to say, this trip is far from being at the back of my mind.

Hiking the Appalachian Trail: Something I've wanted to do for a while. About 2,162 miles or 5 million steps. A lot of people have said that graduating from college into a deteriorating job market must suck. I figured it makes a good excuse to do something I've always wanted to do. I have a one way plane ticket from Asheville, NC to Bangor, ME for July 7th. On the 8th I will hike up to the top of Mount Katahdin, turn around, and head for Georgia. I'm currently trying to figure out gear for the trip, wearing my hiking boots every day to break them in. I really think I can pull this off. A strange hippy I gave a ride to on the way back from snowboarding told me that she thought I could do anything. Maybe she was right? She was definitely high.

Peace Corps: On a long plane ride back to Colorado from Carolina this year, I decided that I should apply for the Peace Corps. I feel to an extent guilty living in a developed country. I think it was Frances Moore Lappé who said that underdeveloped is a verb not an adjective. That, and I need to get out of the country at some point in my life right? Learning another language, living in a different culture and getting some actual job experience would I think be good for me. The application process for the Peace Corps turns out to be rather awful though, and despite a great deal of promptness on my part, I am still at the stage of being a nominee. I'm hoping to get an official invitation any time now. I check the mail box a lot. I check my email a lot too. I believe I was nominated for an environmental position in Thailand beginning in January, but that's a lot further from a certainty than I would like. But, all my med forms are in, nothing to do now but wait.

So that's where I am right now. I'm trying to calm myself down and focus on the present moment a little bit. Enjoy the last snowboarding of my last season for a while, then spend some much needed time with my bikes before I leave them at home in NC to hike for 4 or 5 months. I've essentially graduated, the trip in June is going to happen, my AT hike is planned, I know the Peace Corps will send me an invitation some day, all I need to do now is relax, lose some anxiety and enjoy the Boulder and my friends here while I still can.