willkommen

schön 

...is beautiful

I have always enjoyed writing. In college, it was not uncommon for me to juggle four or more papers (and the 20+ books for research) in one semester. While at the time, I was focused on getting a 4.0, I realize now how much I miss spending hours in a coffee shop working to convey my thoughts, ideas, and arguments about a topic I selected into a paper. After graduating in May 2012, I spent a year in Freiburg, Germany on a Fulbright Scholarship researching a post-WWII trial. I returned to the States in August, and was very grateful to find a position as a Research Associate at a public policy consulting firm. I love my job, however most of my day is spent analyzing data for a client in excel sheets, not writing about what I want to write about.

I loved sharing my semester abroad in Jena, Germany and my year in Freiburg, Germany with my friends and family through blogs. Yet, the idea of blogging about my everyday life scared me. I worried that people would think that my life is pretty lame when I'm not abroad, or worse, that they would think I was fake or a fraud. Armed with the encouragement of my closest friends and the likelihood that my best friends, mom, and aunts are probably the only people that will read this blog, I've decided to give this a chance.

I expect that my blog will be a reflection of the things I love and find beautiful in life -- travel, food, to-do lists, sports, photography, Germany -- as well as the people I love. That's where the schön comes in. Schön means beautiful in German. While living in Germany, I realized that people used schön much more often than we use beautiful. "It's such a schöne city." "What schönes weather we're having!" "How was the play? - Schön." Despite schön being used so often, I never sensed that it lost any meaning or significance. Rather, it seemed to be a way to appreciate the beauty in everyday life. I hope that this blog will help to remind me and those who read it that everyday life is beautiful.