Monday Moods — March 25/24

I never used to think about the transitions in my life. From one season to the next, I let the days go on without reflecting on each change. And really, I am someone who has had many transitions in the past few years.

I was the girl who lived in Italy for the summer, at eighteen. Who collected freckles and postcards at the same rate.

I was the girl who got her first tattoo in New York City. Who went back to that city years later for two days to see Taylor Swift perform in concert at a football stadium.

I was the girl who took the bus into downtown Vancouver on Saturdays and hiked on the North Shore on Sundays. Who ran a half-marathon and then went to an Indian buffet afterwards. Who crossed paths with a bear and then hiked to the top of a ridge.

I was the girl who lived on an East Coast island, in a Park Ranger house on a hiking and biking road. Who ran on the Cabot Trail in the winter and swam in the Atlantic in the summer, with a long-sleeve rashguard that zipped up the back.

I was the girl who travelled on her own in Europe. Who went on a date in each country, trying to fill her evenings with something other than her fingers turning pages in an already tattered copy of “A Little Life” in her hostel bunk bed.

Now, I am the girl who is trying to bring it all together.

But I’ve rarely taken the time to transition in and out of these phases. I’ve flipped my calendar to the next month with vigour, dismissing the…