Introducing...Cindy!

NAME: Cindy

LOCATION: Juneau, Alaska

AGE: 22

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN BLOGGING FOR:
About two years--I started my first blog as a "breakup project"--something to do instead of cry for hours on end over being dumped by my longtime boyfriend. It served its purpose and I started my second and current blog as a way to keep my friends and family updated on my summer adventures--a trip to Bolivia serving at an orphanage, my first summer in Alaska with my then-boyfriend (who is now my husband!), and a week in England at an Oxford summer program. It morphed from travel-blog into a "keep tabs on my rapidly changing life"-blog after I got engaged, embarked on my senior year of college, and realized that marrying the love of my life meant moving to Alaska indefinitely.

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST MISCONCEPTION THE MEDIA GIVES OF WOMEN:
That "we" need to be told how to arrange the details of our lives and "they" have all the answers We have all these magazines and shows giving us tips on everything--beauty, shopping, weight loss, sex, relationships, friendships, wedding planning, studying, what we should read, where we should read it, what glasses we should be wearing while we're reading aforementioned book in aforementioned place--why can't we just decide to read the books we think sound fun, wear the clothes we think are pretty, plan the wedding we think will be the most beautiful?

The two most beautiful women I've ever met weren't walking ads for Vogue, they simply looked at their closets one day and said, "I'm going to wear everything I think is pretty, and I don't care what everyone else thinks."

WHAT INSPIRES YOU THE MOST:
Simple beauty. The most beautiful things I have ever seen are sunsets, sunrises, and my niece's little button nose.

WHAT DO YOU ENJOY DOING IN YOUR SPARE TIME:
I'm a habitual academic with a penchant for artsy things--I like reading, writing, crocheting, photographing with our new camera, and lately I've been getting weirdly into dehydrating fruits and vegetables for the winter.

WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO CONTRIBUTE TO THIS BLOG:
I loved the real narrative written by women in so many different walks and stages of life, and how that could inspire other women in similar (or even different!) places. It gives such a rich view of the world, and I wanted to add my kind of landscape to that already stunning vista.

So here it is: I'm a young woman.

A recent college graduate.

An even more recent newlywed.

A police officer's wife who worries a Sergeant and the Chaplain will come home in his place one day.

An aspiring author with two big breaks on the horizon.

An avid crocheter.

A bookstore clerk who loves books and sometimes hates the people who buy them.

A sworn thank-you note writer.

And what theoretically should be above all, but which I constantly struggle to keep as a priority, a woman of faith.

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE DISH:
I'd give my right arm for Brie en Croute with an assortment of compotes and fresh fruit to eat it with. Yum.

FAVORITE PLACE TO SPEND TIME:
In the real world? My living room, with a cup of tea, when it's clean. In my dream world? Oxford, with a heavy book, even when it's dirty.

WHAT MAKES YOU PROUD TO BE A WOMAN:
Duality. How we can hold children with such tenderness and a sledgehammer with such authority. True femininity to me--and what I love so much about it!--is wearing work boots under your evening gown.

BEST PIECE OF ADVICE YOU EVER RECEIVED WAS:
"Happiness, like a butterfly, lands on you when you least expect it." It was written on a little porcelain box my grandmother gave me when I was little, and it's so true.

Check out my personal, "keep tabs on my ever-changing life" blog at http://wherescindynow.blogspot.com/!