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Every Seven Years

posted 21st September 2010    Written by: Doniree    CATEGORY: Doniree, Inspiration, Job/Career/Work, Life Lesson, Season 3, What I've Learned

Did you know your taste buds change every seven years?  I didn’t.

Well, at least not until a friend told me that this summer.  I’d marveled at my newfound love of macaroons despite the fact that I used to hate the mere thought of coconut.  It hadn’t really occurred to me that it was a change in taste buds – maybe coconut had changed over the years?

This got me thinking about other foods besides coconut that I eat now but didn’t when I was just a little Doni.  Things like mashed potatoes, eggs benedict (fried eggs in general, and this is a new thing), avocados, and cous cous.

I still don’t like applesauce, white chocolate, or water chesnuts.

I did a little research, and it looks as though Je is right – taste buds change every 5-7 years, explaining why I wouldn’t touch an Almond Joy when I was little and could eat my weight in macaroons today.

What else changes in seven years?

Looking Back

Seven years ago, I was 20 years old, I’d finished up my second (and last) semester at Marquette University and had moved back to Minnesota.  I lived in Dinkytown, didn’t own my cute little black cat yet, and officially transferred to the University of Minnesota.  I definitely didn’t eat coconut and definitely didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I was on track to be a high school Spanish teacher, a high school guidance counselor, or a professional research psychologist.  I daydreamed about being a travel writer.  I drank cheap beer, cheap whiskey, and spent money like it was my job.

That year, I had jobs at a makeup store, a golf course, and a grocery store.  I met people and friends who first taught me what “friends like family” meant and who would influence the course of my life in some pretty huge ways.

Looking Here

In this moment, I’m 27.  It’s fall in Colorado.

I’m an independent contractor (self-employed?  freelancer?) who’s working her tail off to figure out how to work, travel, live, explore, seek, and learn all at the same time.  I’m surrounded by love, support, and opportunity – sometimes too much opportunity.  I’m swamped, but it’s my own fault and to be honest – I’d much rather be busy than bored.  I don’t even understand what bored means anymore.

I’m learning to crochet.  I wish I had more time for reading.  I’m going to yoga consistently, though not as frequently as I’d like.  I’m nervous about my upcoming yoga training.  I’m excited to visit my family next weekend.  I’m head over heels in love with the people in my life (new friends and old) and am blessed to have professional work that is as compelling as it is time-consuming.

I’m a tornado sometimes, charging full-speed ahead, still waiting for some the pieces to fall into place.  BALANCE is a daily intention.  It has to be a conscious thought or it doesn’t happen.

Looking Forward

Where would I like to be in seven years?

I’m hoping I’ll have visited lived in Europe at least once, be out of debt, have an official name and structure to my successful business, have seen myself published in print, and have a relationship with a hotel chain and airline that makes travel a seamless and natural part of my lifestyle.

I’ll have mastered the art of balance, carried rich and deep personal relationships with me along the way, and be relishing in a life supported by my values including love, connection, and gratitude.

And who knows?  Maybe I’ll be into white chocolate by then.

I also heard somewhere* that it’s actually every cell in our body that regenerates every seven years – scientifically speaking**, this means we’re totally different people every seven years.

Where were you seven years ago?  What do you want in the next seven years?

Seven years ago, I was in college, a little unsure but just as bright-eyed.  Now?  I’m tornado-ing myself through more self-discovery, more personal growth, and establishing the foundation for the next seven years of love, exploration, and success – in ways that I define and measure love, exploration, and success.

* unconfirmed, as source is my boyfriend and told me that when I told him the thing about the taste buds.

** as scientifically speaking as I can be, you know – not being an actual scientist (or even closely resembling one) and all.

{Photo source}

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When Long Weekends Aren’t Enough, You Up And Move

posted 17th August 2010    Written by: Doniree    CATEGORY: Doniree, Job/Career/Work, Season 3, Travel/Adventure

I’d decided sometime in the middle of a jet-setting summer (nine trips between Memorial and Labor Day) that I needed to spend longer than three days at any given time in the cities I was exploring. You just can’t do Colorado in a weekend. You can’t do Chicago, LA, or New York in a weekend. You can’t spend all of the quality family time you want to spend in Alabama in a weekend.

Turns out you CAN do Vegas in a weekend. Any longer than that and you’ll end up perma-glittered and hating life.  Or at least hungover, broke, and sunburned. And that’s pretty much the same thing.

The New Local

So I knew three days at a time wasn’t enough, and the seed was planted to actually physically move to some of these places – even for a short period of time – to really experience life there.  To know what coffee shops the locals frequent, which restaurants really *are* the best, and how to not get lost.  This idea of a career that allowed me to be mobile wasn’t going away.

It was November 2009, and I’d just graduated from yoga teacher training. I felt more capable, self-aware, and empowered than I had in my entire life. Little things mattered less. Placing ad buys wasn’t doing it for me. The promise of extra zeros on the end of my paycheck wasn’t doing it for me.  At this point, I didn’t care about money. I cared about depth, about relationships, about learning and connecting to myself and the world I existed in.  Two hundred hours of immersing myself in everything yoga over an eight-week span would do that to a person, I suppose.

I decided that if I was going to move around and explore the world, now was the time to do so.

My top two choices were easily Denver and Chicago.  However, being that it was November, and I was making this decision from Minneapolis, I ruled Chicago out almost as quickly as I’d considered it. I love the Windy City, but the idea of similar winter temps to those of the Twin Cities without the magical skyways that keep us insulated and warm? Not ideal.  Not at first.

I started looking west and had Denver map-dotted in my mind, and I visited in December with the intention of finding a cute pseudo-downtown studio apartment near coffee shops and city parks.

Turns out  my aim was about 30 miles southeast of where I was really supposed to land.

When you know, you know

I’d met Grace Boyle through our blogs and mutual connections and she invited me to come up to Boulder for an evening and an event.  That event happened to be Ignite and brought together over 1,000 of the city’s finest minds, best drinkers, and funniest presenters I’d ever seen. If you haven’t heard of Ignite, check it out immediately (and if it’s in your city, go, present, and toast your new friends).

I fell in love with Boulder immediately.  From the pedestrian mall on Pearl Street, to the balance of start-up and tech company rich culture with outdoorsy croc-wearing hippies, and the amazingly bright and like-minded people who lived there, I was hooked.  I also loved that Boulder seemed to draw a lot of wanderlusters like myself – it seems more likely to meet someone from somewhere else than meeting someone Boulder born and bred.

My plans quickly shifted from Denver to Boulder and the plan was in motion.  Six weeks later, I arrived in Boulder, moved into the first available-for-sublease condo I checked out, and started pouring every ounce of free time into earning back that relocation budget that had quickly hit sub-zero.  I wrote $8 articles for content mills, and my blogging gig for a Minneapolis media agency was my only “real” income until I took a contract job in February.

Turn the page

Since moving to Boulder in January, I’ve accomplished a lot:  yoga, volunteering, hiking, additional contract work, lots of wine, built relationships with some of the most open and genuine and intelligent girlfriends I’ve ever known, picked up a Boyfriend who blows my mind in terms of what I ever thought was possible in a relationship, taken a full-time job, and re-committed to training needed to really start teaching yoga. Yet the story doesn’t end here.  In fact – this is where it begins again.

I have plans for the fall that include even more changes and a crazy amount of learning, writing, mentoring, and yoga in a very real way.  I’ve been making some big decisions that you’ll literally be experiencing with me as they unfold over the next six months. So, get cozy because the next chapter literally begins now.

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