fresh start

This fall, I’m moving back to my home state of Florida to return to my alma mater for grad school. While I wouldn’t trade my experiences since I left in 2006 for anything, I’m excited for a fresh start when I go back in August. Some friends have been encouraging me to start a blog documenting the deliberated spontaneity that is my life, but a little life realization today finally gave me the inspiration I needed to get it started.

Quick flashback so my epiphany makes sense… About 2 years ago, I watched Food, Inc. and read Fast Food Nation and several Michael Pollan books, a combination that led me to change how I ate pretty drastically. I have almost completely eliminated eating fast food and processed packaged foods, eat red meat even less often than before (and now only eat it when I know it is local, hormone-free, vegetarian-diet, etc.), and avoid dairy products that aren’t hormone-free as much as possible. The more I’ve stuck to this new way of eating, the better I’ve felt. I could talk for days on this and related topics, but saving that for another entry. …and back on topic…

Recent events in my social life had me questioning if I had let my judgment slip regarding how and with whom I spend my time, and today, I had a bit of an existential epiphany as I walked through Whole Foods picking up tofu, organic baby greens, hormone-free cheese and my favorite Tazo tea (Brambleberry. Highly recommended for fans of the dark herbal flavor of chai and tartness of blackberries). I realized a parallel between my friendships and food. (and yes, I have a knack for relating almost anything back to food, but stay with me here.) I realized that to have a true—organic, if you will—friendship, you have to remove anything artificial that goes into it. No unnatural sweetener to make the bitter, raw, unrefined parts more tolerable. No preservatives like passive-aggressive avoidance of conflict to make it last longer than it should on its own accord. No additives like showy gifts or clique-y behavior to make the friendship seem bigger or more appealing than it is.

All of these things were relevant to my recent social musings and made me realize that I’m starting fresh not just in Florida, but in NC as well, and with this fresh start, I’m following the same rules I do with food. I’m going back to sticking with natural friendships where I don’t have to worry about needing the fake stuff to keep things from going bad. I’m investing more in quality than quantity. Just like food, I’m choosing the friends that are better for me in the long run over the artificial ones that seem appealing at first glance, but will likely end up harming you in some way down the road. Thanks, Whole Foods, for this totally unexpected life lesson.