Welcome!

Hello and welcome!

I'm creating this blog as a medium to document my new life in Boston--a life that will be shaped by work, friends, and the quotidian pleasures that make life worth living. As someone who has thus far lived a privileged life under the Arizona sun, I am at once terrified and excited to move across the country, firmly plant myself in a foreign city, and begin a professional career.

That said, a bit of trepidation has never stopped me from plunging myself into a sea of uncertainty: I have done a bit of traveling in Central America and completed an internship in DC last summer. For me, the most paralyzing aspects of change are the moments leading up to the act. I will be on a plane to Massachusetts within the next three weeks, so this is the time when I begin to be overcome with anxiety and sentimentality. This seismic life change is made ever more powerful when I consider the fact that I know but a handful of people in the city of Boston.

Still, I'm so excited about what is to come. Even though I've lived on my own for a majority of the last four years, my living situation has always been transient. As such, I haven't been interested in creating a space that's all my own; knowing that I will be leaving in X months, I have never bought furniture, painted my walls, etc. Now, because I fully intend to remain in New England for a long time, I'm looking forward to decorating and cultivating a space that makes me happy.

Happiness. An elusive concept that I have struggled to embrace for so long. After much introspection and professional advice, I have come to realize that my propensity to see the worst in things is not completely borne of conscious decisions. Whether we choose to believe it or not, many aspects of our personalities are products of the environment in which we are raised: while some children are taught to make the best of a potentially devastating situation, others learn that it is easier to simply collapse in anguish. This isn't to say that each and every person is not able to choose how he or she will respond to life's vicissitudes; I fully believe that we all have the capacity to choose whether we are happy or sad in any given moment. However, an individual's childhood will certainly dictate his or her initial response to a situation, and this reaction has the potential to determine how the rest of the event unfolds. Anyway, my point is that I see this move as an opportunity to manage my emotions more closely, and this will hopefully help me to become a happier person.

So what do I have planned for this blog? I think that it will evolve organically, but I would like to highlight my weekly excursions, healthy living ideas, thoughts about New England and big city living, and, of course, veganism. I would love to share recipes and restaurant reviews as I explore Boston and its surrounding areas. I hope you'll enjoy and share your own experiences.

Have you ever moved across the country? Do you think that one's ability to be happy can be attributed to childhood experiences?

xo