love came down.

hey sweet friends.

So. As it seems, I haven't been as faithful of a blogger as I had once promised you all. This is my public apology. Moving along.

I'm currently starting week three of the post graduate life. Three weeks. Is this adulthood? Maybe. So far, my primary hobbies have consisted of:

1. sunbathing (when it's not raining)

2. coffee consumption

3. being willfully and happily unemployed

4. netflix

5. coffee consumption

6. planning adventures

7. buying dresses

8. learning patriotic songs on my ukulele

9. sunbathing (again, when it's not raining)

10. antics. lots, and lots of antics.

As you can see, I've been way busy. Too busy, in fact, to come up with a meaningful blog post. But my goodness, being done with college has been so great. Two days after I graduated I remember sitting in Espresso News for five hours and fretting over not being in college, being unemployed, lacking vision and passion, and having far too much time to spend. I remember feeling like having that amount of spare time meant that I truly had to deal with myself, and I wasn't quite ready for that. It was, in fact, the last thing I wanted to do. Oh how far I've come.

The last two months of college were really crazy. I had a lot on my plate and a lot of things to think about. So, like I do, I shut down. I refused to say goodbyes to people, I refused to clean my room, and I refused to make any sort of decisions about the future. I decided that I would drag my feet and not deal with reality until after graduation. In the process, I think that I stopped being myself for a while. It was hard for me, and hard for the people around me, I'm sure. So, if you're reading this and you stuck it out with me, thank you! We made it.

Anyway. I say all of the above for this reason. And it's a big reason. After months of practically not existing on this planet, and three weeks into the post graduate world, something in me has [finally] changed.

And I'm finally starting to feel like myself again.

Praise God. It's been months. I don't know what to do with myself. Sometime within the past three weeks my heart and my spirit stopped and took a huge deep breath of air. Fresh air. Just in time.

And guess what else? I'm finally excited about the future. I don't know what it is, but the Lord is doing a new thing. A new, completely necessary thing in me. I feel like I'm about to fall in love with Him all over again..or at least remember why I've fallen in love in the first place. So, it's good. Especially after months of being way tired and burnt out. If I've learned anything over the past few months, it's that the Lord is the only one who can remedy being tired and burnt out.

Again, Praise God. It's been months.

So.

Summer 2011, man. It's the summer of a lot of things. The summer of love, long hair, soul searching, and endless amounts of antics. The willful unemployment will [hopefully] end in July, praise God, so June is my month. What what!

Also, Monique finally moved in with me last night. As you may remember, Mo was my roommate in Spain. AND I went to Spain exactly one year ago today. Ha! Seriously, what a special day. I can't believe it's been a year. It's good to have a roommate again. And I'm so glad it's her. We love and understand each other like no other.

So thankful.

Yep. Viva post-graduate adulthood.

It's going to be good.

until next time, hopefully sooner than later,

-brooke.

ps. in case you need a sincere heart anthem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifeJRC5lvhs

also, i think this was a whiney post. sorry. i'm getting old. this is what happens.

Graduated.

Welp, I did it. Four years of college, and I've learned more about living than you'd think could fit into a life time.

But I still feel like I'm five years old.

My family came to visit this weekend to celebrate with me. When I drove away from my mom and dad after a mother's day breakfast, I cried. Despite my best efforts to be cool, I drove myself to church, sat in a corner, and cried.

So now, here I am. It's Monday. I've been sitting in a coffee shop for five hours now, next to the sunshine and an open window, alternating between planning a tropical vacation and writing this blog.

So. In the process I've finally resolved to do something. While I'm waiting on job things and adventures to begin, I'm going to blog again. So here we are. I'm blogging again for a few reasons. First, to keep myself from wallowing in the post-graduate depression that I feel creeping in, ever so slightly, and also because I need a continual reminder that I have something to look forward to. I need to convince and remind myself that ordinary life can be just as beautiful as an exotic adventure if I let it. I believe it to be true, but I need to live it.

So, I'm still the Spanish Romper that I was 12 months ago. I decided to leave the blog name, mostly because it's representative of adventure--whether here or abroad somewhere. So, here's to a summer and a life of adventure, no matter where on the earth I am. And here's to kicking down this door and intentionally starting my life, rather than just letting it happen to me.

And finally, here's to setting the creeping post-graduate depression on fire. I'm way too alive to be hopeless.

thanks for reading. i'll be back soon.

love sincerely,

iva brooke.

ps. Sorry for all of my run-on sentences. I promise that I am an all-A college grad.