The Summer Solstice

In two weeks I will begin traveling across the United States headed towards my new home and a new phase of life. I'll be starting a Masters of Public Policy program at UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy in the bay area of California.  I'm excited and anxious to say the least.

Today, the Summer Solstice, the day when the sun stands still in the sky, is a day which symbolizes both reflection and change.  It is a day when after pausing for a moment, the sun from our perspective, changes direction.  In addition to marking the beginning of the summer season, it also marks numerous holidays and festivals that have been practiced in tandem with this event for centuries.

I too have been in my own sort of festival over the past several months, which has been both exciting and demanding.  I've seen friends and family all over the region in effort to spend time with them before I leave for the west coast.  I have spent countless hours purging, sorting, cleaning, and packing belongings.  Belongings, which force me down memory lane to revisit past experiences, those that were happy and regrettable. It has been worthwhile; I've enjoyed spending time with my beloved friends, the feeling of having less stuff, and discovering old memories, but all the same it has been pervasively taxing on my being.

 So perhaps, as Solstice teaches us, it is time that I too pause and reflect.

Seven years ago, when I moved to Brevard, I was a different person.  I'm proud of the changes I've worked to make, the parts of my personality I've worked to develop, and the experiences I've been lucky to have.  More than anything I'm particularly grateful for the individuals that have graced me with their love, compassion, thoughts, hopes, dreams, goals, and energy.  They've helped me find my path and I hope that I too have positively influenced them.  Perhaps my greatest self-discovery is that it is deep in the realm of the impossible for one to trod this earth alone: that community is a living, breathing necessity, and that mortality is real and our own eternity is found in the lives we impact for tomorrow.

So, my friends, this blog is dedicated to you, our common journey, and our mutually beneficial future. I hope, through this blog, I'll be able to capture my journey in graduate school, that we will be able to stay connected and that I will remember occasionally to pause, to stand, and to reflect. I've named the blog "sistere" which is a latin form of the verb sisto and a derivative of the word solstice.  Sistere means to cause to stand. So whether I am pausing and reflecting, or talking about some issue for which I am taking a stand, or sharing my hope for upcoming change, I feel this blog is approrpiately named.  Named to capture the future, to remember the past, and to remind us all of the incomporable value found in the journey.

Changes...

All,

I'm working to transition my blog into a forum for me to capture my transitions to Berkeley and subsequent life in graduate school... So hold tight, change is around the bend...