Gracefully Clumsy

April 13th is maybe the best and worst day of my life. Let me start from the beginning. April 13th, 2014: We get into the Accident. I sustain the Traumatic Brain Injury. From this point on my life has changed for worse: my processing speed is unbearably slow, my short term memory has flown out the window, I’m tired literally all of the time-physically, mentally, and emotionally. From this point on my life has changed for better even though I may not realize it: I was going through a bit of a hard time and having the Accident come when it did actually got me out of a rut. However, this realization is gradual and isn’t typically my main reaction or first appreciation in the coming years. April 13th, 2015: The Accident is still relatively fresh. It has defined me now that I’m allowed extra time, I’m taking fewer classes, and I’m still incredibly tired-in all three ways mentioned before. I actually asked my parents if I could take a mental health day and skip school—I wasn’t a...

It started with the fact that I live on a boat. No it’s not a raft like she uses but I am using lines to sweat sails like she does. We take watch periods in a cycle - 4 hours on 8 off - and whenever you get a clear night watch you can see a million different stars in the sky. My watch team leader Dan and fellow watch team member Jack are both really into Celestial Navigation and so I’ve learned a lot about the stars from them. One of my new favorite constellations is Scorpio. Scorpio’s tail is the Greek equivalent of the Polynesian Maui’s Hook. So yes, I Am Moana. A rundown of things: -our mains’l boom broke... uh oh -we swam crossed the Equator! -we visited St. Helena, Fernando De Noronha, and Devil’s Island -we are now in Barbados about to start island hopping -we are about to start learning how to SCUBA dive -we’ve been taking classes on Marine Bio, Oceanography, Seamanship, and Leadership (I have my seamanship oral final tomorrow... wish me luck) We had a prom on Argo...

While we were in Cape Town the crew of Argo visited Cape Point which is the southern mist point in Africa. I feel like I stood at the edge of the world. A few days later we set out to sea. It’s been about two weeks and we are now on the most remote island in the world, St. Helena. It’s so remote that when Napoleon was exiled for the second time (because they needed to send him somewhere even farther way) they sent him here. We set sail for Brazil in a few days. In the meantime keep checking the SeaMester logs! I’ve already been skipper of the day once and can’t wait to write again.

I’ve been in South Africa for four days. I’ve been living on a boat. Her name is Argo. We leave port in a few days and head across the Atlantic Ocean. In case you didn’t know, WiFi doesn’t exist in the middle of the ocean — not really anyway. Personally, I won’t be able to post on this blog (maybe a few times on port over the next three months) but you can check in on all my activities and life on deck here: the SeaMester blog , where the skipper of the day updates it each night. Wish me luck!

If you know me then you probably know that I am a goody-two shoes. Being a goody-two shoes is not necessarily something I'm proud of, but I like order, I like predicability, I like following rules, and I like my comfort zone. I also LOVE doing things outside of my comfort zone. I'm a bit of an adrenaline junkie. I like roller coasters, I like rock climbing, I like high dives/high jumps, and feeling the wind ripping through my hair in a fast moving vehicle like a convertible or a lancha. So here's where this comes into conflict: I like to play it safe. Even when it's out of my comfort zone it's still in an environment where I know I'll be safe and won't break any rules. Obligatory "This is what this gap year is for..." It's not about breaking rules but it's about letting go of expectations, of what is "right," and of not letting anything get in the way of adventure. So... we wanted to see "The Disaster Artist" o...

First of all, sorry for not posting for these last few weeks. We've been really busy. Here's what's happened: -worked on an avocado farm digging holes and picked coffee beans on a coffee farm -went cliff jumping in San Marcos -had an incredible potluck Thanksgiving (Gracefully Clumsy vlog post coming soon...) -contracted bacteria from water/food, I was 15th of 17, went to a clinic in Antigua -went gift shopping in the market! -finished the Harry Potter series (still v shook over a certain character's death) -finished our media project, a video titled "Why Is Blonde Beautiful?" I'm working on getting the file to put on YouTube -landed back in DC For the past week I've been hanging out in DC meeting with Development and Aid organizations such as PeaceCorps, World Bank, the UN, and the NRDC, not to mention had seminars about how to actually affect change. We went to Smithsonians, went on a monument tour, and met up with friends in the area (...

Heigh, ho! Heigh, ho! It's off to work we g o!  *whistling noises * We look like the 14 dwarves. Every day at 8 we're met by a handful of farmers from San Juan. They divide us into groups and we follow them to our various farms all the while carrying shovels, hoes, and pick-axes over our shoulders or machetes in our belt loops. I said in one of my most recent posts that I feel fairly confident in my Spanish skills and I can say that the majority of the TBB group does too. In fact we've all gotten used to speaking in a English-Spanish hybrid where a number of common words in our vernacular are verbs in Spanish with an -ing ending attached. They include, but are not limited to: subiring, bajaring, descansaring, and limpiaring. The verb limpiar in Spanish, for those who don't know, means to clean. For two weeks we have been limpiaring. For the first week I was in a group of four with my friends Sam, Madison, and Charlotte. Every day we walked up a super steep hill fo...