Veintidos

Not the actual cupcakes I ate on my birthday – but my friend did post these on my Facebook wall.

So last week (this week?), I turned twenty-two. Which is just weird. In many ways, it was a normal day for me – internship, class and procrastinating. (Thanks for a great dinner though, Juliane, Nancy and Alyssa!)

Still, birthdays naturally lead to reflection. As a I celebrated my last birthday as a Fordham student, I couldn’t help but reflect on my first birthday here. There was more fanfare then, and some of the faces are no longer important part of my life. I couldn’t tell you much also about that point in my life though.

Which brings me to my next point: reflection in general. Fordham is a Jesuit (Catholic) university, and while spirituality isn’t a big part of my life, reflections have turned out to be a large part of my education here – especially outside of the classroom. When I participated in a Global Outreach service trip, reflections were an integral part of our weekly meetings. And while these reflections were important, they were new to me and a bit unsettling because of that. Those reflections though are a recurring theme in my life here.

Still, reflecting isn’t a part of my personal, daily life. I don’t pause and think about what I do and why I do it – I just go through the motions. Intern, class, procrastinate, newspaper, repeat. And that’s the problem, isn’t it? I’m too busy running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” ~ Ferris Bueller

And so that’s a promise I’m going to make to myself now that I’m in my 23rd year. Pause. Reflect. Breathe. As for my birthday wish? All I can hope is that in the future, I’ll be spending more time and more birthdays with the people I love who are all over the world.

~ Sarah

Truffula Trees Are What Everyone Needs

Top – Target; Watch – street vendor; Skirt – thrifted; Heels – Payless.

Let me reintroduce you all to my closet door. Until I buy a tripod here in New York, it’s the best I can do for a background when I prop my camera on my dresser. Boring, I know. But one day soon I’ll get a tripod and be legit, promise.

I wore this today for an interview for a summer internship. I’ll be doing social media a couple days a week for The TRUF, a non-profit theatre group. I’ll also be interning at the Norwood News, a community paper here in the Bronx, part-time. It’ll be a busy summer, but I’m hoping to learn a lot.

And can I tell you about this pencil skirt? It’s one half of the suit I bought during winter break for interview purposes. Grand total? $12. And did I mention it’s silk? Thanks, Goodwill.

~ Sarah

French Riviera

And then a month later, I blogged about Nice and Monaco…

Deliciousness.

Marizpan

Oh hey, no makeup

Côte d’Azur

Monaco

Monte Carlo Casino

Just wanted to share a few (ok, a lot!) of the last leg of my spring break trip! But guess what? I’m already on summer break! (I had the biggest breaks when it came to my final schedule.) Hopefully this means I can hop back on the blogging bandwagon.

~ Sarah

P.S. Happy belated 21st birthday to my friend Nancy!

When In Rome

It would be awesome if I was just getting back from my European vacation, but no – I’m just really lazy now when it comes uploading hundreds of pictures. I guess enough bullying from my suitemates (hey!) has forced me to (finally) post a few pictures. I’ll spare you the trip recap though, but I will say Rome and Genoa (in northern Italy) are lovely.

Flying over the Alps.

Way too early in the morning at the Trevi Fountain.

The Pantheon

The Forum

Walking up Palantine Hill

Another view of the Eternal City.

Alleyway

Dessert

Winning meal.

~ Sarah

California Dreamin’

I know it’s been awhile, but that’s because I was off having one wonderful adventure.

Today, my friend Cara’s Facebook status read that she left her heart in San Diego – and I can’t help but agree with her. Our team fly back from California (a.k.a. the promised land) on Sunday morning (think 1 a.m.) and since then, it’s been weird readjusting to New York, classes, and “real life”.

Basically, my outreach trip to San Diego was absolutely incredible. I don’t even know how else to describe it. Our team stayed in cabins at the Kamp of America campgrounds in Chula Vista. Most mornings, we’d wake up around 5 a.m. and drive over to St. Vincent de Paul. There we either worked in the back of the kitchen or served breakfast to some adult homeless, until about 7:30 a.m. Then for the next hour or so, we would clean up the cafeteria and get ready for the lunch rush.

Afterwards, we’d drive over our awesome mini-vans to StandUp For Kids. The San Diego location does outreach work, but also has a center for homeless and street kids to come, hang out, eat a good dinner, shower, etc. In the morning and early afternoon, we did chores around the place, from cleaning to organizing their food donations. We had to throw out so much food that had expired years ago – it was heartbreaking. After our chores, we’d go back to our campsite to unwind and eat lunch. Around 4-ish, we drove back to StandUp to meet the day’s volunteers and the kids. Most were actually older, eighteen to about twenty-two years old. We’d serve dinner, eat together and hang out for a few hours.

It was incredible having the opportunity to meet some of the homeless in San Diego. I’m really glad we got to work with both adults and youth. It was so striking and humbling how appreciative everyone was for a simple meal or conversation. It was also great to have people open and to listen to their stories – everyone had a different set of circumstances that led them to where they were. And the people we talked to were some of the funniest, brightest, and most honest people you’ll ever meet. It can’t even be put into words. The craziest moment for me was when I met a twenty year-old guy who went to the same elementary school as I did, back in Florida. To meet him 3,000 miles away from my hometown, living in such different circumstances but being so much alike was just astounding.

Suffice to say, it was the most rewarding week of my life, easily.

And, just like all of our supervisors and volunteers begged us to, we had some fun too. On Thursday we walked a bit of Balboa Park, San Diego’s answer to Central Park, and on Friday we went to Torrey Pines, where we went to the Pacific Ocean and did some hiking. Unfortunately, I couldn’t really take pictures at the places where we volunteered, but here are some of my favorite from the trip. (And yes, that includes a snapshot of one the best Mexican meals ever. I’ve been dreaming of carne asada tacos ever since…)

OH yeah. And I got to spend my spring break with eleven of the best people you’ll ever meet. We’re so obsessed with each other, it’d be lame if we weren’t such awesome people. ♡

If your school or college offers any service or immersion trips, I say go for it! Seriously, you won’t regret it. It was an incredible experience. So tell me now, what have you all been up to?

☀ Sarah