SNOWSNOWSNOWSNOW!!!!!

There just aren't words for how much I adore snow. It's not sticking right now, but just the sheer fact that such fresh loveliness is currently falling from the sky and polka-dotting everyone is amazing. Snow reminds me that even in the cold winter, there is beauty and wonder to be found. Snow reminds me that the ground can be reinvented into newness, a clean sheet tucked into the corners of the earth. Snow reminds me of the feeling of forgiveness and new dreams and possibilities. Your world becomes whole and clean in a matter of hours, and for no other reason than the Lord loves us.

This weekend I discovered that I've grown up since I was sixteen. My fabulous friend Megan came up from Louisiana to spend her fall break at my place, and there's nothing like seeing your home through a visitor's eyes that makes you appreciate it more. Yes, Wheaton dating is funny. Yes, I live in a bubble. Yes, I still don't really know what I'm doing and it scares me. But, I've grown so much since my junior year of high school, I've learned how to stand strong and take risks and move far away and like it. I can navigate a major city and discover new neighborhoods and want to move to different countries. It's all possible.

Megan and I!

What really gives me hope though is that Megan and I can become completely different people (when I was in high school, I did not want to leave the Carolinas. She wanted to get the heck out of dodge. Now, I don't really want to go back South, but rather get a job in the Midwest and then go to Scotland. Now, she wants to teach English in Louisiana or back in South Carolina) yet we still love each other and are best friends. Yes, I was friends with all 99 members of the SCGSAH Class of 2011. Yes, I basically only talk to 3 of those friends now. But, I can carry people in my heart and they can carry me in mine and that can last through time. 

My favorite building in Chicago, on the River Walk of Wacker Drive

Also, I just love this city. I never thought I would love any place that was large and not-Southern. But I was proven wrong, as I will be proven wrong so many times in the future. I welcome that now.

The sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide 

This is the wonder that is keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Much love, 

Em