I Live and Breathe!

Hello good people who read this blog! Basically, I’m writing this as a letter to my dear relatives, and will send it to them via email as well. But if you happen to be a friend from New York, Boston, Indiana, or anywhere life has taken me, this is for you as well.

I’m enjoying life! St. Louis has been lovely, although we’ve had some rapid vacillations in temperature that would have set my sap running had I been a tree. I am trying to think of all the things that I’m grateful for, and I can’t possibly list them all, but here are some of them:

1.) The opportunity to learn again. This has been so huge. Last year I struggled a bit with just retaining what I had been reading, so it’s been incredible to be able to read, reflect, and write again. I even wrote a thirty-four page paper! May I never do that again. But I did it once!

2.) Incredibly supportive family members. I love living with my dad. I get some weird looks from people, probably because they expect me to be living on my own, but I’ve really appreciated cooking with him, laughing when I mistake garlic for Parmesan and eat a whole mouthful, and watching him wrestle with Harris, the best cat in the world. And I know that my other family members are just a phone call away, and they’ve made me feel loved and supported throughout every step of the grad school process.

3.) New friends, through the Brown School, frisbee, and beyond. I felt relatively socially isolated in Indiana, in terms of friends my age, so St. Louis has been almost a complete 180 in that regard. I can go kickboxing, or dancing, or frisbeeing, or hang out with a friend’s pets and make mug cake. It’s really nice to have variety and supportive peer friendships within walking and driving distance again.

4.) Harris. This is short for Harris Davis, which is a cat name that I dreamed up and then bestowed upon the one-year-old cat I adopted with my dad in December. I do so love this little guy. I like catching him at the witching hour the best, which is the time of day when he’s actively seeking cuddles and will come into my room and put his little paws around my neck, purr for five minutes, then start trying to bite my hands. He’s also had some supremely athletic jumps and spins in the air as he attempts to latch on to my kneecap or practice parkour off my upper thigh. Other names for Harris: Little Man, Puppy, Hairball, HD TV (when he’s on the TV).

5.) My Practicum. I’ve been interning at ArchCity Defenders, a holistic legal nonprofit that supports poor people and people of color who have been unjustly treated by the criminal legal system in St. Louis. I’m excited to work more one-on-one with clients, and I’ve also really enjoyed just being able to work as part of a team again, and play ping pong during breaks, and race the other interns to the kitchen when someone posts about donuts. Feels like a return to normalcy. And we earned twice the anticipated amount in the silent auction, which I helped coordinate for ACD’s annual trivia night fundraiser. Insert emoji with dollar signs for eyes, which have always found creepy but now somewhat appropriate.

6.) Chopping vegetables. Ok, this is probably a sign that my list has gone on long enough, but I’ve really started to enjoy cooking by myself, with my friends, and with my dad. There’s a meditative quality to cutting vegetables into even cubes, once I’ve gone to the bathroom and cried out my mascara into a towel after cutting an onion. I recently discovered what is probably my favorite curry recipe to date in this life of mine. The only thing I would maybe do differently in the future is add some crispy tofu. OH it is SO GOOD.

One last note is that I’m crazy proud of my younger sibling Laur (pronouns they/them, and feel free to ask me about pronouns), and was inspired to post an update on my life because I saw theirs, lol. I won’t be posting my blog posts on Facebook anymore, but I may be dropping in a bit more this year to give updates on Harris and OH YEAH FORGOT TO ADD BUT I HAVE A BIKE NOW!!!! (Thank you Pads <3)

Ramble on,

Sarah aka Sabes aka “Garbage Disposal” (so nicknamed for my ability to digest anything in the kitchen at my last job)