Red Hair

There are moments in life where you have to leap, take a chance.

Some take a road trip to anywhere.
Others get that tattoo that's been lingering at the edge of every thought.

I dyed my hair.
Red.

It's not a life altering decision. It get the occasional, "ooOOhhh let me see you hair!! When'd you do that??" Besides that, life's been pretty normal.
Billy Joel sings me awake, I find myself dressing, and I'm off for a run.
OR I put Billy on hold via the magic of Snooze and I doze back into a fuzzy, warm doze.

But I dyed my hair. ME. Permanently.

When I look in that mirror, there I am (no, duhh). But then I start running a hairbrush through my hair and RED. The under layers of RED peek through.

I'm not the same Rachael before I boarded that plane to Italy. I'm not sure if others notice, but I can tell, I can feel it in my gut. The RED reminds me of that, reminds me that I've grown. Flying across the Atlantic, living in a foreign country for four months, I've stepped closer, closer to the person I want to become.

A person that smiles at life,
wakes up to see the sunrise,
spends her extra cash on a plane ticket to see a friend,
eats out even though her budget says she should eat in,
talks all night with her best friend,
kicks her shoes off and steps in the river,
leaps in her Faith despite the fear of falling.

A person that soaks up life, the good and the bad, and keeps running...keeps seeking Adventure.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Week of Firsts

Image
When you study abroad, you tend to rack up some firsts:  FIRST time out of the United States. FIRST "Scusi, Scusi!" as the tram jolts to life and I stumble into an unsuspecting Italian woman. FIRST Italian pizza. FIRST gelato (of many). FIRST glass of Italian wine. FIRST Italian coffee . FIRST Sunday with Pope Francis. The typical and definitely delightful firsts are all there;  however, the unexpected ones nudged themselves into my week as well: FIRST  time  walking to school. FIRST  time  getting hopelessly lost..alone. FIRST  time  cooking  real  dinner (without a microwave). FIRST  orange. FIRST  time making an omelette. FIRST  time hanging  all  my clothes to dry.  FIRST  time using Face time .  Some of those are pretty ridiculous, I do admit. Yes, I haven't eaten an orange before (well technically since the golden days of kindergarten). No, I have only ever made scrambled eggs. When I look back on a day, a week, a month, or a year and realiz
Read more

The Land of My People

Image
When you think about studying abroad, especially in Europe, you start to make a mental wishlist of the places you want to see, the places you want to go.   I didn't have much expectations coming here except for good Italian food. I knew I wanted to travel, but where this semester would take me was up in the air.  Everywhere and anywhere was an adventure. But there was one place that I did dream of going, one place that seemed to be only a dream. Croatia .  As I looked up and booked my many adventures, Croatia was always on my mind. However, getting there was the problem. Planes didn't travel to Croatia until the summer. The only other option was by train and ferry, an expensive and arduous journey. Then, Bus2alps made it all happen. Bus2Alps is a traveling agency that caters to study abroad students, planning trips to hot destinations and events like Springfest and Carnivale in Venice.  As I began to lose hope of ever seeing Croatia, Bus2Alps had a day o
Read more

On to another adventure

Where did the time go? That's a common question getting asked these days, days like ... Graduation. Sometimes a Monday can feel like ages, a week like eternity. And then years just zip on by without a care in the world. *** I started this post at around 6:30 a.m. Now it's 3:30 p.m. and I'm graduated. Undergraduate no more. Do I feel different? How do I feel exactly? Well, the speech is done and over. There's relief there. There's a background sense of accomplishment, completing undergrad and all. Honestly, I mostly feel humbled and loved. Those that I care about took time out of their day (some, even their work day) to come and support me. Others have messaged me or will see me later tonight. I couldn't have done ANY of this without all of you. Thank you, thank you truly. This day is as much mine as it is yours.
Read more