FIRST TIME STATE OF MIND

First steps. First kiss. First job. First love. First car. The first time of anything is a portal to a different world…the beginning of a new reality.

First-timers can be like children…wide-eyed, curious, excitable…wading, often leaping, into uncharted waters with only the notion that life will take care of them. They may also habour a favourable assumption that joy is their birthright.

This summer, for the first time, I went to the ocean.

Stepping into seawaters, even rounding the corner to glimpse the ocean for the first time got my heart pumping and my feet moving. I was a girl again…discovering something I’d never seen before, making it my own, and me—becoming more a part of the bigger picture in the process.

This entire summer has, in fact, been a steady stream of firsts–each making the world a whole new place and me a vital, vibrant part of it.

There have also been plenty of near-firsts; things that I haven’t done for so long they feel like the first time. (“Feels Like the First Time”, Foreigner? Yep. Listening.) Such as getting on a plane. Or a ferry. Or the road to a new life. Anything that transports me away from the comfort of what I know to the uncertainty of what I don’t. And, for the first time in a long time, actually being okay with that. There have been a few detours, of course, but I’m going for it.

Because it feels right. And it’s my turn. Again.