3,000 Miles: Happy One-Month to us!

Last Friday, three of my MHGS friends and I realized that we needed to celebrate the fact that we had survived the first month of graduate school. I proposed that we take some food to the beach, sit by a bonfire, listen to music, and enjoy each other's company. That's precisely what we did. It was such a wonderful time of freedom, experiencing nature in all its goodness, and lots of laughter.

Here, Dana is working on the project that we came up with for our friends.

She wrote this quote on the outside of some pretty, organic-y envelopes:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. -- Marianne Williamson

I wrote each of our names on a piece of card-stock with the meaning of the name underneath and put them inside the envelopes. We did it for each of the girls that were heading to Golden Gardens that night and also for all of our roomies.

Amanda took this picture of Kate and I admiring the view. You can imagine why it deserved such admiration. BEAUTIFUL.

Here I am trying to start a fire with WOOD on a little grill. All of the fire pits were taken when we got there so we decided to improvise. Luckily for us, a group left their pit and told us we could take it.