This Always Happens to Me

Since I moved around a lot growing up, I tend to have friends in random places. I have a ridiculously amount of Facebook friends from all the schools, summer camps, vacations and clubs, and my family is always finding connections to old friends wherever we go.

So it wasn’t that big of a shock when an old friend of mine, a girl who was one of my closest friends in elementary school, who lived in my neighborhood and played on my soccer team since the beginning, wrote on my Wall on Saturday night saying she was in Boston for the night and staying somewhere near my campus.

She left her number, and through the powers of the Blackberry I received it immediately. I texted her saying that I was going off campus for the night but I wanted to see her. She responded that she was at a friend’s brother’s house in the town that I live in.

I told her I lived there, and asked for the address of the house she was staying at so I could stop by.

Here’s the exciting part. This girl? This girl that I’ve known since I was 6 and was best friends with until I moved away in 5th grade and haven’t seen in 11 years? This girl that lives in Connecticut and randomly happened to make her way to Boston and then to my campus? Yeah, this girl was staying at the house across the street from mine.

ACROSS. THE. STREET.

Literally. Her house number was 16. My house number is 15. I could probably spit on that house from my driveway. (You know, if I had the wind in my favor.)

So that was a ridiculous coincidence and it made my night. We only got to catch up for about half an hour before I had to go catch the bus to my event, but she promised to come back to Boston soon so we could reallllly play.

Can I just say one more time that I love my life?

Me and my long lost bestie.

What Best Friends are For

So Becca and I spent nearly 3 hours last night talking about life and boys and fears and secrets.

It’s easy to forget that you still don’t know everything there is to know about your best friend, even if you’ve been friends for years and live in the same house.

Our chat was the perfect end to a great weekend of bonding over yelling at government employees and trying to sneak into movies.

So here to wish you a happy Monday, a special visit from Becca and I circa freshman year, celebrating my 19th birthday.

Stay strong!

Check out The Factionist

I don’t think I could do The Factionist justice if I tried to explain it.

It’s a brand new social venture, and it’s basically badass.

Check out the website, and Nate’s blog while you’re at it. And be sure to order a shirt, because let’s be honest — how could you not?!

The Lost Generation

After completing the Greater New York StartingBloc Institute, I’m feeling a renewed sense of pride about my generation and the amazing things we will accomplish. I think this video sums it right up. (It’s not very long, and I promise it’s worth it. It gave me chills.)

Check Out Supersibs

SuperSibs is a national non-profit organization that provides support to children and teens who have a brother or sister with cancer.

These “shadow survivors” often feel neglected and confused while their sibling battles cancer, and SuperSibs provides support and care packages for them. They mail out journals, activity books, and other fun tools to help them cope, and are in the process of training hospital oncology staff how to provide comfort to patients’ siblings.

My family has a unique connection to SuperSibs — although we haven’t personally been affected by pediatric cancer, we have been actively involved in SuperSibs for a few years now. My father and I met Melanie — the founder and current Executive Director — on a plane about 4 years ago. We were on our way back from DC where I was looking at colleges, and I ended up sitting next to Melanie and we chatted about what she does. She ended up applying for a grant from my dad’s company, and my family has also been able to support the organization financially. My dad even sits on the Scholarship Committee, reading applications from high school seniors applying for a SuperSibs scholarship.

Needless to say, my family and I wholeheartedly believe in the mission of SuperSibs. When my dad and I first met Melanie, there were about 400 kids receiving comfort packages. Now, nearly 4 years later, there are over 19,000 kids and teens being served across the United States and Canada. It’s pretty amazing.

If you know of any family that has been affected by pediatric cancer, please feel free to refer their siblings to SuperSibs. The work they do is amazing, and it’s all FREE.

Welcome!

So this is me.

I’m a student, graduating in about a year with a Bachelor’s in Political Science. I know a lot of people who love politics, and international relations, and foreign policy, but I’m more interested in what happens here in America.

I realize that although I may not talk about politics or my opinions a lot, I think about them all the time. I also recognize that I don’t have all the facts, and I want to be able to educate myself about things that are important to me.

So here’s my blog. I want to write about things that matter to me. I want to feature amazing nonprofits and re-post interesting news stories. And I want to engage people and inspire them to make a difference in their community.

So here goes…