I'm in the walk stage of crawl, walk, run.

I'll be honest; I haven't been keeping up too closely with goings on at the academy. I've been busy in my post-academy life. I try not to talk about too much extremely personal stuff here; I like to keep confined to posts about things which are useful or interesting to read to people who are not me. As a result... maybe not so much with the posting lately. What's been going on?

I came home from college, sat on my duff for a few months getting complacent, split with my long-time boyfriend, moped around for a little while, visited my sister in Arizona, got a job as a bookseller, started seeing someone new, spent some time with my brother while he was home on leave, started up a knitting group in the area, and have begun a new, stressful period in my life.

I am going through the process of applying to the U.S. Coast Guard OCS. This has proven to be much more time consuming and more stressful than I had thought it would be. This is in no way a bad thing - it's the push I needed, and I don't like anything easy. This is proving to be difficult for me to do all on my own (and make no mistake, you are on your own for much of it. This where being a 'self-starter' comes in handy!) but I am enjoying it. I've been getting "down to fighting weight" as they say, working on the paperwork, and reading up on all the required and suggested books and subjects.

I've still got a ways to go in terms of paperwork (my narrative, in particular.), but i'm at weight, focused and determined. I may not get in, but i'm doing what I can to make sure that I am competitive with other applicants.

I'm ready to go, I'm just waiting for the call.