An introduction.

Women over-think. It's what we do. It comes as naturally as eating copious amounts of chocolate or crying for no explicit reason or finding it impossible to respond to the dreaded "are you okay's" with anything other than "I'm fine." And much like those innate qualities, over-thinking never really helps. So why do we do it?

I think it comes easily for me because I've studied words my whole life - from books to soulful music to writing to rhetoric, truly, all I do is consider. Lately, I've been considering this next big step. Moving from a small town in Georgia to Sydney, Australia, by myself, to work for a year. No, to succeed for a year. To thrive.

I consider why I made this choice. Was it because I was heartbroken and running? Or because I hated my job? Or because I felt the need to prove I could strike out on my own and be okay? Maybe all of the above, a little. But moreso, I think it was because I didn't know what I wanted or where I would find it, but I knew if I did something wholly terrifying, I would come alive.

But now, I consider the next nine days, a number so small it demands to be spelled out. I consider what it will be like to be away from my family, my friends, my favorite coffee shop, the boy I like (naturally, some kind of romantic entanglement is required). I consider how it will feel to be literally on the other side of the world, starting fresh, as they say. I consider all the things I could do to stay here, to stay still, to stay safe. At the end of all my considerations, though, I feel an excitement that is so rare I know I have to hold on to it.

So I will move to Australia. And it will be good, in a multitude of ways. And maybe things will turn out exactly as I want them to, but it won't be because I am brave or fearless or have contracted wanderlust to the nth degree. It will be because this is just life.

Here's to living it, and sharing it with all the right people.

My current vantage point, downtown Milledgeville.