“Today and tomorrow are going to be the last 70-degree days in Seattle,” JD said this morning, before leaving for his day-trip to Portland. Ten years of living on the wet side of the Cascade Mountains taught me to take advantage of every sunny day, and as such, I chose to get breakfast and coffee near Green Lake, then walk the entire loop. It was one of my rest days from lifting and high-intensity work, so I spent this morning watching the marine layer slowly burn off.

It was a good morning.

As some of you probably noticed, this summer marked a decline in my social media presence. My blog, Twitter, and even Facebook have been seemingly neglected. The many issues I was processing and documenting for about six years on this blog have evolved, and much of it doesn’t seem to warrant the same exposure as before.

The uncertainty of “what do I do after college?” has morphed into an openness for any number of pathways. For the meantime, I anticipate continuing on in my advising role, taking on new responsibilities with the new academic year. I would like to see where things go in this role; it’s been exciting and challenging, and it would seem things will continue to be that way. What the long-long-term looks like for me will depend on many things.

Balance still remains important to me, and in the past year or so, investing my energy in the people, activities, and interests I care about–as well as my own self-care–has become even more important, but only those people that recognize and affirm my value will continue to get in-depth investment from me. I spent a lot of time letting toxic things into my life, they took a lot of my time and resources, and I got tired of it. I took a step back and got myself in order. The person I am now is one that I am pretty happy with, and being around people that are appreciative of that is hard to describe. It’s like there’s a special glow to those friendships, whether they are many years old or relatively new; there is something special about the people around me, and I want them to know that. And I want myself to remember that she is special, too, which is why taking the time to renew myself and reflect on where I’m at and commit to challenging myself is also part of the balancing equation.

There are still some things that bother me. Uncertainty is one of them. However, I’m becoming better at seeing things from multiple angles and understanding that there are many ways for me to lead a fulfilling, happy life; the biggest driver for me will probably be that magic word, “balance.” What that looks like in the future will evolve, and I am okay with that. Life can be good, and life can stay good. This is the lesson I’m learning. I still don’t quite trust the Universe fully, because I spent a long time hurting, but I’m getting there.

***

I keep getting distracted from this post because I have been baking paleo pumpkin muffins, and my kitchen smells quite autumn-like. Note: I still have a disdain for artificial pumpkin goods and the Pumpkin Spice Latte, which I won’t really go into here because I don’t have the resources for it. I’m patiently awaiting the appropriate time to start guzzling eggnog lattes and downing apple pie like there’s no tomorrow, but I digress.

***

CrossFit is still going well. Gearing up for another competition, which will be a mixed-pairs competition with JD. I’m looking forward to it, as it will be his first competition overall and my first co-ed team competition, and the custom matching t-shirts I ordered are pretty slick, too. He’s got some serious CrossFit talent, along with amazing positive energy. It’s hard to keep up, although I try my best.

I’ve hit some new PRs in the past few months, including new deadlift and power clean PRs. With beginner gains a thing of the past, now I’m working on refining technique and picking up new skills (and then refining those). There’s an endless smorgasbord of things to learn, and not enough hours in the day. Going to the gym has become a routine, and days off are necessary, but they leave me anxious to get back in and work.

I’m sad to say goodbye to the summer; then again, I always am. I’m an “endless summer” kind of person, yet the Pacific Northwest keeps me here for some odd reason or another. However, I’m looking forward to what the autumn has in store this time around.

Oh, and for the record, the muffins turned out okay.