Learning to Fly

In the final moments of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stardust Crusaders, a plane bound for home takes our heroes across the sky. With their defeat of a great evil, their journey is ending. As I boarded my flight from Phoenix, AZ last week, with the song of their departure in my ears, I knew that mine was just beginning.

If you had asked me even a few months ago what I thought I would be doing after graduating from college, I would have responded with an unsure answer about somehow finding a job (emphasis on "somehow"). I felt as though I were Indiana Jones facing his leap of faith: the path was right in front of me, but I couldn't see it. Right before the beginning of the my last semester, I began scouring the internet for job opportunities. The very first one I came across was a posting for a technical writing internship at Southwest Airlines. Thus, I began the process of tailoring my résumé. Over the course of the next few months, I applied to a wide array of other openings, almost forgetting each application that I submitted.

To my surprise, I got a call back from Southwest, and two interviews and three months later, I was offered the internship. I accepted the offer immediately. To say I was excited would have been an understatement. Knowing that had immediate plans after graduation, I took the opportunity to focus on doing well in my last semester. After finishing up my internship for Austin College after the holidays, I dove headfirst into my new position.

In truth, I'm still excited. I've always been fascinated with air travel, and joining Southwest has only caused that interest to grow. I'm now aware of aspects of flying I hadn't dreamed of before. Additionally, I have the privilege of working with a fantastic department and doing real, tangible work.

Utilizing my intern benefits, I traveled to Phoenix for a day to visit grandparents. Normally, such a trip would require hours of driving or weeks of planning. This time, catching a flight to Arizona had never been easier. Having the freedom to take a short trip halfway across the country was an eye-opening experience. Staring out at the sky from a coveted window seat, I'm amazed now and again about the vastness of the world. Something tells me that it'll never get old.

My first flight as a Southwest intern was an important milestone for me. It was truly a marker of the end of my undergraduate years. A significant part of me will miss the times I had in college: they were some of the most fun years of my life so far. Even so, I'm looking forward with much enthusiasm towards a bright future. The next chapter of my life has taken off.

Return of the Narrative

It’s been just over three years since I made my first foray into the blogsphere. In retrospect, it seemed to be an experimental outlet for writing that wasn’t academic, a product of a time when I was just beginning my college years and the serious study of English. Now that I’ve finished my degree with some promising first steps into a career, I’ve emerged with more complex thoughts and ideas. I may not have updated this blog since 2013, but I never stopped writing. I waded through papers for class, produced marketing communications (a term that sounds too résumé-like for this post), continued to write inconsistent thoughts in journals, and even delved into my fanfiction stories every once in a while (although I updated those stories at the pace of an elderly snail). All of this writing helped move me forward, leaving stories in its wake.

Three years ago, I thought long and hard about what inspires me. I considered music, knowledge, relationships, and a host of other important things…but each of these on its own didn’t give me that feeling that combines excitement, raw emotion, and meaningfulness all into one. Looking back at my first blog post, it would be simple to disregard the observations of myself three years ago.

The funny thing is that it’s true. All of it.

It didn’t quite come to me until after I had written my first post, but soon I came to realize that I feel most alive when I’m enveloped in a story. That certainly hasn’t changed in three years. In fact, if anything, my passion for stories has only gotten stronger. I’m a firm believer that stories are how we make our mark on the world. In the immortal words of the Doctor, “We’re all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh?”

With this in mind, I’m jumping back into this blog. I doubt that the topics I write about will be consistent. I definitely won’t be making posts on a regular schedule. The tone of my posts might bounce from silly to serious and critical to positive. But I’ll certainly be returning to write. I’m always thinking, and with my thoughts comes the ever-present urge to pick up my pen, fire up my word processor, and search for stories everywhere and anywhere.