Can You Be Too Independent?

June 01, 2016 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Life In Your 20's, life lessons

Adolescent me is a stark contrast from today me. This shouldn’t surprise anyone. Most people change between middle school and adulthood. Theoretically, we get taller. We lose the acne. We get jobs. (Or you don’t and you go to grad school and prolong a miserable academic existence. Just kidding. Or am I?)

However, my personality has changed more dramatically than my comlexion. And not in a Charmander becomes Charzard way (that was a Pokémon reference for those of you didn’t collect cards in second grade). I more was like a Charmander who became Wartortle (don’t worry, I had to Wikipedia the evolution of Pokémon to make that joke).

Growing up, I was the sensitive bookworm. I wore glasses, read Peter Benchley novels, and kept my heart on my chewed-up sleeve (I teethed a lot in third grade). I hid behind my parents’ legs when confronted by strangers. I also ate a lot of cookies (okay, I was morbidly obese; I’m not even joking). And “leader” was the last thing a teacher would write on my report card.

I Traveled Abroad…And It Didn’t Change Me

May 30, 2016 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, life lessons, Life In Your 20's

Gasp!

What?

It didn’t?

BLASPHEME!

The title says it all. I’ve been abroad, and I am still the same person. I could even throw an expletive in there. I am the same. F*cking. Person.

This might not be news to a lot of you, but I feel I need to address the general blogging/Pinterest/Instagram/millennial community. Anyone who uses social media is barraged by quotes and essays on travel changing you, why you should travel, "TRAVEL TRANSFORMED ME," etc.

Going Abroad for the First Time

March 23, 2016 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Life In Your 20's, life lessons

Since tenth grade, I’ve been committed to living abroad. That’s also the year I decided I wanted to join the Peace Corps. I have never abandoned that idea, even as I’ve entered a PhD program and realized how atypical that path is. (True academics may use the stronger descriptor of “stupid.” STEM PhDs get high-paying careers; they don’t abscond to Africa. But I will.)

The irony of my short-term life dream is, I had never been abroad. Until two weeks ago when I went to Denmark. But until then, I have had to cringe and admit I have been a caged bird my entire life, but one day I’ll fly outside the bars aka cross the Big Pond. It’s hard to defend a life dream when you haven’t even tasted it. Or at least you feel deluded.

As I’ve written before, though, I have clung to my decision to live abroad/join the Peace Corps, and I’ve grown even more resolute that I will be applying within the next two years as grad school wraps up. But even as that day has gotten closer, I have felt more and more claustrophobic – like being on a plane with no leg room and you don’t know when the flight ends because you’re phone’s on airplane mode and your wristwatch has stopped working and how many time zones have we crossed, is my phone changing to match it, WHEN WILL I GET THE HELL OFF THIS PLANE, etc. (This scenario did not happen. At all. I promise. Never happened.)

Adrenaline Rushes, Reckless Decisions, and I'm Going to Copenhagen

February 01, 2016 by Cazey Williams in Cazey's Column, Life In Your 20's, life lessons

I’m a planner. From dentist’s appointments in six months to haircuts in six weeks, I schedule things. If you ask some people what they’re doing this weekend, they’ll say they don’t know. If you ask me, I’ll list my morning workout, when I’m doing homework, and what errands will be run afterward before I see who-and-who at such-and-such time for dinner at blank place.

I’ve also always wanted to go abroad. This has been a dream since high school. In tenth grade I decided I wanted to join the Peace Corps. In college I tried to study abroad, but my parents blackmailed me out of that. And in more recent months Sara and I have been plotting an overseas adventure that became waylaid by life.

Last night I booked my first trip abroad. Without planning.