Talking Tess: Who, where and why
Hello! If you've come to this post, it's probably because you already know who I am and what I'm about. If you don't, here's your chance to figure that out.
For starters, I've been nervous to start this blog, as I used to hold my thoughts back when I was younger. Now that I'm a little older, I've gotten better about realizing my thoughts and words mean something - and they could mean something to someone else as well. Despite the desire of wanting to help other people, I want to use this space solely for myself; I want to move past paper and pencil and put my ideas out into the open in order to release emotion for the betterment of my mental capacity. I've reached the point of knowing when and what to let go, or let free, and I want to do that in a healthy way. If anybody reads this, I'll appreciate it. If nobody reads this, I'll still appreciate the opportunity to write.
I'm currently a 20 year old sophomore at Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis in the heart and soul of the state. I'm a School of Social Work student and plan to complete my bachelors and masters over the next three and a half years. I've secretly been thinking about a PhD track as well (you'll soon discover how and why I'm so passionate about social work). Right now, I'm sitting in my new favorite coffee shop at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. I'm studying abroad in this beautiful city, trying to discover more parts of me that I probably wouldn't have if I had stayed in the US another semester. I was in desperate need of a break. My freshman year at IUPUI took a pretty big toll on me mentally and I was determined to change that my sophomore year. A month into my second year, I had a breakdown about what I was doing, maybe even more so about what I wasn't doing, when I saw so many people around me traveling and making big plans for the upcoming year. The next day, my mom and I began researching study abroad opportunities that I could quickly become apart of. Within two weeks, I had submitted an application for New Zealand through the IES Abroad program. Over the next month or two, I tried not to talk about it very much in order to not get my hopes up. I didn't want this pipe dream of traveling the world to be set back any longer, but I also didn't want to be let down if that had to be the case. Eventually, in November I believe, I was finally accepted into the program, but I still didn't let myself get very excited during the months leading up to my departure. There were too many things that I believed could, or would, go wrong and honestly, I was very nervous. I decided to sign up for this semester abroad during a pretty irrational breakdown... and it actually worked out in my favor. How often does that happen?
Another reason as to why I'm starting this blog is for my love of writing. Again, if you know me, you might know that I've been working on a book for almost a year now. I have about 120 pages written so far, and I'm not even close to being finished. I plan to finish the book after I graduate with my bachelors degree in order to attract middle school, high school, and college students with my experience in all three areas. I want to focus on the attention placed on young people and their relationship (existent or not) with God while simultaneously being a normal, society driven, and still impressionable student of the world. We can exist in the material world and God's kingdom all at the same time, as long as we know the difference between the two.
I want to write this blog as a way to collect my thoughts for my personal use and for my book writing as well. I will be updating my family and friends on life lessons I'm learning this semester in New Zealand, while also sharing snippets of my book when I'm feeling inspired to do so.
Stephen King once said, "If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others; read a lot and write a lot." This is me desperately trying to reach my potential, wherever I am in the world, and with whatever is in mind at the time. I hope you like what I have to say.
Love it already
- Tess