Fast forward.

Grad school's been on my mind as of late. Instead of actually filling out applications, I've just been doing a lot thinking about where to go: the Cascades? Portland, OR? Maine? Montana? It's hard not to let my mind revert back to the familiar, so naturally Duluth is on my mind for this decision.

I've been making strides (though still not actually filling anything out...) with the process and though I'm not going to attend UMD's program, all this thought has brought back lots of memories from my summer.

If I ever needed a different perspective on life, I could go to Hawk Ridge. Thoughts, like the hills, just seemed to elevate here. Sometimes I felt on the same level as the clouds, as the birds. A good way to see a place you love is to see it from on high, with your feet on the ground.

Part of how I decided not to go to to Duluth for further schooling was the fact that I already know I love it. Today is two months to the day of when I left that wonderful Northern port city; and though I was only there for three months, I feel a relationship to it that I didn't expect upon arrival.

The East holds the familiar. Duluth was new and fresh and hard and big and bright and just what I needed. Like the Kickapoo Valley, I know I'll always be able to come back. Like the Kickapoo Valley, I know I'll only become more passionate about Duluth the more I let myself explore new places.

So I'm going to explore. I'm not even sure I'll go to grad school anymore; what I am sure about is my absolute delight for environmental education. I can simultaneously be educated and the educator -- what a passion! And how lucky I am to have these places, these connections to such different landscapes. For all the bright lights my rural eyes weren't used to, the Zenith City offered beauty of humanity and nature; a fantastic display of all that really makes me excited to ramble on with my life.

"In April I opened my bill,
in May I sing night and day,
in June I change my tune,
in July far, far I fly,
in August away I must."