A little about myself first

To all you lucky people who have found your way to my blog, welcome and hi!

I've never been very good at writing or journaling, so this may be a disaster, but quite frankly I'm writing this for myself first and foremost and those who wish to read may do so at their own discretion. :)

Like I said, my name is Carissa, I'm 25 yo and living in the wonderful Boston neighborhood known as Somerville, not a bad place at all. I'm finally in my own one bedroom apartment, which is quite a change for me since I grew up as the eldest of 5 living in a raucous (but very fun) house with 7 people and multiple pets.

I won't go on too long, as I think most people who read this will already know me, but just in case...I grew up in lovely Western Mass, and had a pretty great childhood. Played tons of sports, danced, had lots of fun and exciting birthday parties, awesomely supportive parents and a pretty smooth sail through my young adult years. Of course there were the typical blips: arguements about my mom disliking my boyfriends, or lying to be able to sleep over at a "co-ed" party when I was in HS, but really not much out of the norm I would say. I did however spend my entire young adult life working to be the best little perfectionist I could be (a character flaw and a blessing at the same time) and ended myself up at Tufts University out near Boston. I did a double degree in Economics and Spanish (spanish being a life-long love, and econ being a newly discovered passion) and graduated having done pretty well for myself in 2004. After a futile, and in all honesty not very aggressive, job search I resigned myself to applying for Grad school, something I knew I wanted to do, just ideally not right away. I got accepted at Tufts for a Masters in Econ, and at the same time got accepted into a program for Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) that would commence in Madrid, Spain. As many of you know I spent about 7 months in Alcala de Henares, a small suburb 30 min. outside Madrid, my Junior year of college and fell IN LOVE WITH SPAIN!

So after much deliberation, I deferred grad school packed up a few items, deceived customs into thinking I was only going for 3 months, and moved to Madrid with one of my best friends from college, Andrea, and another girlfriend Kyle. The year was amazing! I missed home, but loved Spain, and to this day still keep in touch with a tight group of people I met and taught with there -- though we suck at trying to pull together reunions.

After that fun and exhausting year away I came back to do my MA. I started in 2004 and finished in 2006 and the years in between were arduous, and nothing like what I had hoped...but there was a light at the end of the tunnel (other than the MA attached to my resume), which was meeting and gaining more incredible friendships which I still have today :), so all was not lost.

Then it was time to enter the real world...something I don't much enjoy in terms of being a 9-5 slave, but I suppose especially now that I NEED insurance this is an evil I must endure. So I've been doing that for a couple of years now. One of the few positive things about my job has been that my boss and coworkers have been amazingly understanding throughout all of this.

So outside of these "normal" stats about who I am here's a few other tidbits about me. I love my family first and foremost. The original 7, now 9 of us, are extremely close despite all of our differences and I would not change a thing about any of us, or our experiences growing up if I could. I continually find myself beyond blessed for these people in my life and for how much strength,love, comfort, laughter, and support they provide me with. They are my rock.

Outside my family, I've got great friends, though it seems these days they're scattered all across the world and so it's a bit hard to physically "hang out" with them, but I do what I can when I can to visit.

As for hobbies, I used to love to play soccer, now I love to watch (but not on TV!), I like reading (but mostly mindless fictional pieces either about FBI espionage or chick books about shopping/marriage and the likes -- hey I think I did enough "intense" reading during my Masters to last me quite a few more years). I also love being by the beach, not necessarily on it, but definitely by it, and love running on the beach when I get the chance. I'm a dog person at heart, though due to my small living space currently have a very cute and lovely kitten named Sammy -- but I hope one day to have a big ole' husky :). And I guess my other big passions are doing anything outdoors (though I do despise nasty little mosquitos), and running - lots and lots of running.

I think that's enough for now...

be well and be happy.