Adventures in DC, Volume I

Well, I've been down here for a few days, and I thought I'd let ya'll know whats going on.

First, as some of you know, I decided to celebrate my return to the city I love by getting very very sick right off the bat. I spent my first night here throwing up, and then followed that up by puking in a stairway during my first group orientation meeting. I am *awesome* at making first impressions! However, I think I'm okay now.

Its kinda weird to come back after 2 years. At first, I was beyond excited...I wanted to just hug everybody I saw on the metro, and I'm sure I creeped a few people out with me grinning everywhere I went. I'm not a creeper...I'm just happy to be back.

Of course, so much has changed. I don't have too many friends that I still talk to at American, and I'm a very different person than I was during my freshman year of college...as I'm sure just about everybody else is. I know that I'm not going to be able to come back where I left off, and I'm okay with that.

I think its pretty obvious that I've over-romanticized Washington DC as some kinda of wonderland, where Federal bureaucrats are giving out free hugs and Pell Grants, and where the Potomac is really made of Root Beer. I not only fell in love with this city when I was here, but with all of the things that happened at that time of my life that could have happened anywhere. I became independent for the first time in DC, fell in love for the first time, tried so many other exciting life experiences...and to be honest, all of this could have happened just as easily in Akron or Toledo.

Which isn't to say that this opportunity won't be something special. I've already met some cool people, and I've got a lot of fun and exciting things coming up soon, not to mention a job which should be very professionally rewarding....but perhaps spending my first few hours hugging a toilet reminded me that everything here isn't perfect...which is something I needed to remember.

Keep in real in O-H-I-O (or wherever you are)