Eight Years...Still Wild, Still Absolutely True.

Eight years ago today, I started a blog.

A few weeks later, I boarded a 747 and started the adventure of a lifetime. My year in England was full of highs and lows, ups and downs, loop-de-loops and adventures big and small.

As my adventure in England came to an end, I wondered what I should do with the blog. I'd grown rather fond of it, so I kept it, figuring that moving to Washington--a state I'd previously visited exactly one time, for about four days--would be an adventure in itself. I was right.

Surely returning to California in 2006 was an adventure, too, right? And it was, as I rediscovered the Golden State and learned that I really do love this crazy, diverse, legislatively-inept, beautiful, wonderful chunk of real estate that sits right next to the biggest and most powerful ocean on our planet. It took leaving for two years, then coming back, for me to understand just how incredibly beautiful this state is. That for better or for worse, it's home, and I'm a California Girl.

In the six years I've been back in the land of fruits and nuts, I've taught high school choir, moved to the Most Miserable City in the country, survived two years of unemployment, lost almost 90 pounds, learned a little body confidence, become a runner, made friends, lost friends, enjoyed the friends I already had. I've been changed forever by a Sadist, a Sweetie, a Meanie, and a very Reasonable guy. I've become a Keane fan(atic). I've sung with two great choral groups, watched the Kindergatos grow, nursed my sweet Millie through a scary illness, and adopted the wild and unruly demon-spawn called Harley Dude.

I even let four teeny kittens into my bathroom for two weeks (and into my heart forever).

I've taken pictures, visited as many of the old California missions as possible, driven to Santa Barbara just to see Mumford and Sons, and allowed a crazy lady from New York that I'd never met in person to stay in my apartment for a few days in one epically awesome week of fun, friendship and incredibly loud car sing-alongs.

And we can't forget the duck.

A few months ago, I was chatting with my  friend Chris on the phone. Chris has known me since the day before my 16th birthday, and he's heard many a crazy story from my life. I told him a new bit of news on the phone that day, about a date gone awry or something silly I'd done. His booming laugh filled my ear and he said, "Oh, Megan."

Giggling, I responded, "My life, Chris...it's never dull."

Still laughing, it was all he could do to respond. "No, no it isn't." 

But honestly? I wouldn't have it any other way. Life isn't meant to be lived on a treadmill, going the same speed with no change in elevation or circumstance. It's meant to be lived--an adventure.  The lyric that always comes to mind when I start feeling bored, lethargic, or as though life isn't going the way I want it is from that Harvey Danger Song, "Flagpole Sitta..."

"Well if you're bored, then you're boring."

Every so often, when I've got some time on my hands and nothing in particular that needs to be done, I go back through old blog posts and I'm amazed at how I've grown and changed in eight years. My opinions have sometimes changed, and my appearance certainly has, but at my core I'm still the same hopeful, adventurous, often silly, always real Meg that started this blog eight years ago today. I keep blogging not because I feel that everyone needs to read my story, but because I need to document my story, the things I've accomplished, the stresses I've survived. This blog is the story of my life, with its ups and downs, its loop-de-loops, and the joys and sorrows that come when you get out there and really live.

Thanks for reading my story. Here's to more adventures--Wild and Absolutely True--to come.

Channeling my inner Bridget: London 2004

In Washington (2005)

Meg in Motion (2006)

Elementary School Teacher, 2008

Summer's "Bachelorette Night" in 2009

Sarcasm and Scarves...2010 (Read this post for the story. This one, too.)

It just wouldn't be a fun day without the obligatory duck-on-head photo
op on a beach. (2011)

On my way to sing a serious choir concert...let's get the silliness out of
the way before we even leave the garage, shall we? (2012)