Where Did I Leave My Ruby Slippers?

Where Did I Leave My Ruby Slippers? 

Home. It’s a four letter word and yet the memories and emotions it can evoke are vast and deep. For many, home is a place of comfort. A place where you belong, a place where your worries melt away, a place where you’re protected from the (oftentimes) crazy world outside. For others, home is simply four walls and a roof over your head to protect you from the elements. And for some, home is a place from which one is trying to escape.

For me, home was always that place of comfort. No matter what happened on any given day, I knew home was a place that would always welcome me with open arms and be a soft place to land. As a child, I can vividly remember watching the scene from the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy begins to click her prized pair of ruby slippers together repeating to herself over and over again, “There’s no place like home. There’s no place home.” 

As I began to get older and venture further from home on my own going on vacations with friends, leaving for college, studying abroad, I felt like I had my very own pair of ruby slippers that I could put on whenever I needed and be transported back to that place where everything was comfortable again. 

Somehow though as I began to travel more often, moved away from home (for real) for the first time, and went longer and longer without using my ruby slippers, I began to feel them slipping from my grasp. So what do you do when you’ve lost your ruby slippers? What happens when you’ve lost your sense of home? 

I’ve spent a good deal of time pondering this question lately and I’ve come to the conclusion that this feeling is simply a side effect of growing up. Just like how my perception of the once real Santa Claus has now become a fictional character whose image procures fond memories of childhood during the holidays, so too have my ruby slippers lost their magical powers to transport me back to the once magical home. 

While it’s true that home doesn’t feel quite like it used to, I’m not entirely willing to accept defeat. I refuse to believe that home will never again be that ultimate place of peace and comfort. Instead of having it provided for me though, I must now create a home for myself. Rather than trying desperately to find my childhood ruby slippers (they will most likely be too small to fit anyway), it’s time that I design my very own new pair of ruby slippers that fit just right. And knows, maybe this pair will end up being even better than the last.

Live the Life You've Imagined

There are moments in life when you reach a critical turning point. You can keep doing what you’re doing, living life the same way day in and day out even though it’s not working; or, you can choose to make a change. At 27 (and some change) years old, I feel as though I’ve hit one of those critical turning points.

For over a year now, I have felt “stuck” in my life. While there have been some pretty big changes (finishing a Master of Education program, landing a job at GWU in DC, and picking up my life to move to a new location on my own), mentally and emotionally I’ve been on the hamster wheel of life going around and around with no change of scenery, no end in sight. A personal life event landed me in this place over a year ago. While I have put forth effort since then to move forward, I haven’t made any significant alterations to my lifestyle that would produce the results I’m looking for.

In talking with some of my closest friends recently about all of these changes in my life, several of them have expressed how much they wish they had the courage to make such a major change on their own, to have the opportunity to start over fresh without any obligation to anyone but him/herself. So I have to ask myself, why don’t I feel the same? Why wasn’t I excited to start a “new life” in a vibrant city filled with young professionals? Why don’t I see what I have done with my life as a wonderful accomplishment, something to be proud of? The answer is simply because I haven’t chosen to. I’ve been focusing on what I haven’t done or don’t have rather than focusing on the many blessings in my life and living a life I want to live in the present.

For several years now, I’ve had a running list of books I’d like to read, places I’d like to see (domestically & internationally), and activities I’d like to try. This practice was inspired by a visit to Walden Pond back in college where I fell in love with one of Henry David Thoreau’s many famous quotes, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined”. While I have accomplished quite a bit in my first 27 years of life, much of it has been focused on what I should accomplish rather than what I want to accomplish. I haven’t been making an active effort to live the life I’ve truly imagined for myself.  

So as I start this “next chapter” of my life, I’m choosing change. Once you put something down in writing it’s official, right? Since I’ve been craving a creative outlet for myself for a long time and I’m no good at drawing or painting, I thought I would try my hand at writing.

I intend for this blog to serve as a place for me track the changes I’m going to be making in my life  over the next 365 days, a place to challenge myself, a place to reflect on what I’m learning about myself and others, a place to share my successes and my defeats. Most importantly, I want it to be a place that, perhaps, inspires others to makes positive changes in their lives as well.

We only have one life. I’m going to start living the one I’ve always imagined starting now.  

With that said, in the next year I want to:

*Write at least one blog post a week (more if I feel like it)

            *Read one “fun” book and one “professional” book each month

            *Take a yoga class on a regular basis

            *Save up enough money to go to an all women surf camp next spring/summer

            *Get in touch with at least one friend a week that I haven’t talked to in awhile

            *Create a DC area bucket list and cross something off that list at least once

              every two weeks

            *Find a community service organization I want to a part of and participate 

              as often as I can

            *Exercise four times a week—no matter what

*Learn as much as possible in my new job & take advantage of professional 

  development opportunities

            *Say “thank you”, in some way, every day for the many wonderful blessings 

              in my life 

·     There’s a great big world out there that’s ripe for exploring. Here goes nothing!