And so it begins...

I'm not rather fond of talking about myself, however, if you are to follow my blog, I feel like you should at least know a little about me.  My name is Leigh and I am a grad student at WOU.  While being a grad student consumes most of my life right now, I choose not to be defined by it.

I much rather be defined as a coffee drinker; this is more accurate. When I was quite young, I always thought that coffee drinkers had this coolness around them that has since been spoiled by establishments like Starbucks or Dutch Bros. (I do visit these establishments from time to time in a coffee pinch, but I try not to).  Cool like Judy was from the cartoon "Doug" that was on when I was a kid.  I will argue that she is the original hipster.  But that's beside the point.  I love going to original coffee shops and spending hours talking to people... either friends or people I met at the coffee shop itself.  Coffee has been the foundation for many of my closest relationships as well as some of the best college classes I have ever had (thank you Coffee Cottage for being a block off campus!) and lastly, lazy morning sitting on the back patio with my father drinking coffee while watching the squirrels play.  Coffee plays a large role in my life.

I also like to be defined as a traveler.  I studied abroad for four months in South America and gained the nickname of Gitana which means gypsy.  I know that a lot of people have terrible connotations of what it means to be a gypsy, but I rather enjoy this nickname.  Gypsies were nomadic people, and even though I have stayed put for most of my life, I always wanted to be rather nomadic... being able to fit my important belongings in my car and then moving to another place at the drop of a hat sounds like an amazing life to me.  But as I was saying, I love to travel.  I have been to Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, England, France, and Mexico.  Due to financial reasons, I have not been able to travel more, but I love learning about other cultures and the best way to do this is to immerse yourself in whichever culture you want to learn about.  And most places have better coffee than we do in the States (Peru fo sho).

Teacher is another definition that I will gladly accept.  I have wanted to be a teacher for a very long time.  My first real memory of this desire is in the fifth grade with Mrs. Morvac.  I wanted to be just like her.  However, I have realized that I don't much care for the elementary school age students and I really wanted to focus on Language Arts instead of all the subjects.  So while my focus area has changed, my desire has not.  I want to teach and work with youth until I am too old to work or until I can afford to travel as a living, which ever happens first :) 

I hope that this post sheds some light on who I am and what I am like, besides just another grad student.