Long Time…No Post

I’ve been absent from the blogosphere for well over a week now, so I have lots to report.

Let me start with the most exciting news: I had orientation at IU yesterday!  Awaiting orientation was anxiety-inducing.  I was constantly mulling over what to do if I didn’t get into the classes I needed, reviewing the requirements for my major and putting the finishing touches on my appeal for residency.  Huge sigh of relief – all of these worries are now sorted out.   My credits transferred perfectly – after one semester at GW and a lot of IB credit I’m a junior.  While I understand that there is really no magic timeframe for when one has to graduate from college it’s great to know that even after taking three semesters off for recovery I’m still on track to graduate with people my age.  I declared my major yesterday and after some meticulous planning put together a schedule that works and that I’m really looking forward to.  After this semester I will have covered all of my math and science requirements for graduation (only one more semester of calculus and then I’ll be free forever!!).  Also, I placed into the highest possible semester of German; here is proof that foreign languages education in elementary school is incredibly beneficial.  All in all it was exciting and informative and I can’t wait until August 21st.

While in Bloomington I also walked around the downtown and visited the Co-op.  I’ve never felt so at home in a community as I do in Bloomington – it’s busy enough to be exciting but it’s still very walkable/bikeable.  I also the feel of a college town.  There are so many locally owned businesses – from an awesome running store to the Bloomingfoods Co-op – and a huge arts community (visual arts, dance, music, theatre, even opera).  It’s definitely a midwestern city, but a damn exciting one.

As far as recovery goes – it gets bumpy at times, but I’m slowly building a support network here and finding the resources I need.  When I first got to Columbus I looked back at the past year and was proud of how I’ve coped with onslaught of changes, stresses and downright bad news.  What I didn’t realize was that with re-employment and the opportunity for me start fresh in a new place I was not automatically out of the woods.  Now we’ve reached a point where there are almost innumerable changes and I’m surrounded by little unknowns all the time.  Yes, these are primarily positive changes, but it still throws a lot questions and anxieties at me each day.  In a situation like this my programmed response is to turn to eating disorder behaviors.  This said, I have spent a lot of time lately compiling mental lists of why recovery is important; school is always number one on said inventory.  You can’t go to school if you’re dead, end of story.

To wrap this up – my outlook on what lies ahead after my first five weeks in Indiana is very optimistic.  I am beginning to see that sometimes things just work themselves out.  Had our lives not started to unravel at the seams last Fall and eventually precipitated in this move, IU never would have been an option.