What time is it?

I’ve been in a few different time zones the past week, so I apologize for the delay in this post. The week started in Iceland, the Land of Fire and Ice. I have to say that we saw no fire, but we did experience significant cold and wet. It rained every day. 

As I was taking the bus from the airport to the hotel, I sat behind what must have been a senior in high school. The back of his shirt said ‘the only way to move forward is to look back’. Mind you, I had spent most of the plane ride from London to Reykjavik crying as I was writing last weeks blog post - just very emotional about the changes that are coming. As a big ole history nerd, I’m a big believer in ‘those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it’, ‘what’s past is prologue’, etc. But I feel like when it comes to our own personal lives, the advice given is to not look back and to charge ahead - you can’t grow if you’re stuck in the past. 

So which is it? 

The past is safe, we know what happened.

The future is scary, we can’t know what will happen.

I often fear that I live a life more focused on the past. I am a sentimental sap, I have scrapbooks that go back to 9th grade. I love taking pictures and recording those moments and the scrapbooks provide a chance to look back on these memories and actually remember what happened. In a lot of ways, this blog is a very public scrapbook (so naturally, I haven’t included everything in this, because some things aren’t for the world). 

I think the beauty of my time in Cambridge is that we’ve had to be very present in order to survive. The time has moved so quickly that the only way forward was just to go forward. Now that things are calming down, I think we’re all getting a little breathing room, and focusing more on the next step. It’s natural to compare the lives we were living before the MBA to what we are anticipating our lives will be like post MBA. I’m starting to have to acknowledge that I need a long term plan and for the first time in my life, I don’t have one. Now that is terrifying, but also freeing. 

If the only way to move forward is to look back, do we have to examine the good and the bad and pick and choose what to take forward with us? Or must we acknowledge that history tends to repeat itself, even in our own lives, and strive to not repeat the mistakes we made earlier?

If you’ve read this blog at all, you know I never really have an answer to these musings. In a lot of ways this has nothing to do with the MBA, but when I saw that on the back of this kid’s t-shirt it stuck with me and I had to try to sort it out.

Thanks for bearing with me, y’all.

So, back to Iceland. Jessica, a dear friend that I’ve known since KINDERGARTEN, met me in Reykjavik! We started the trip off nice and easy with a visit to Sky Lagoon. This is an absolute MUST if you go to Iceland. We were swimming where the Trolls must live and it was magical. We scooted around Reykjavik and saw the famous church, Hallgrimskirkja and the Rainbow Road. It rained on us excessively.

The next day we did a bus tour of the South Coast. I felt terrible as I kept falling asleep on the bus, missed most everything that our tour guide shared with us, but my being was exhausted. We saw some waterfalls and even got to see/touch a glacier! It was very sad to see how much that has melted, we have got to do better by the earth. 

By Tuesday, it was time to snorkel between some tectonic plates. You heard me right. Iceland sits on the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates and Jess found a way for us to snorkel between them. First, I have never looked better in my entire life than I did while snorkeling. Second, I couldn’t feel my face after about 3 minutes in that cold cold water. Would I do it again? 100%.

Iceland was pretty incredible. Nature definitely taught us a few lessons, and I will never under pack for a nature trip ever again. 

Before hopping on our respective planes back to the USA, we made a stop at the Blue Lagoon. The most instagrammed place in all of Iceland. Was it cool? Sure. Was Sky Lagoon better? Most Definitely.

After a quick 8 hour flight, I was back in Denver and seeing my ‘Denver 🏔️ Besties’. After a fun night out, I was reunited with an old roommate to drive to Vail to see the other roommate get married #girls10!

Allyson and Ding were such a blessing during my time in Denver and I am so grateful I was able to make the trip out to see Ding tie the knot with Andres.

I was able to watch their relationship turn from courtship to like and finally, into love. 

 

 

I really have missed the incredible community that I had while in Denver. It’s unfathomable to me that I don’t know when (if) I’ll be back there.

Before flying to Texas I was able to see Cat and Sean one more time. They are the most avid readers of my blog, and it means so much to me that they read it every week. It is still up for debate on when some bets are due, but I am sorry that I didn’t tell y’all the second I knew I was going to be in CO for the weekend.  PS thanks for driving me to the airport!

This week has been a good reminder of the relationships that have been formed through early chapters of my life. I am blessed beyond all measure to have the people that are in my life. It was comforting to know that even though I have left these folks are still there for me. So maybe that t-shirt had a point, the only way to move forward is to look back. To not forget the ones that got you where you are, to bring the joy, to bring the laughter, and to keep going forward, together.