Growing up, I definitely wasn’t much of a reader. My heart was captured by playgrounds, running on rooftops around the block, and generally causing mischief. Still, there are two novel individual’s that captured my mind as a youth, Old Dan and Little Ann, the hounds from Where the Red Fern Grows. I’ve always loved dogs, and have dreamed many a night about when I can have my own. Dogs are companions for when you need someone to hug and cry with, motivators for exercise and play, and faithful guards when alone in the dark. But, dogs to me represent so much more.
I’ve been a transient a lot, bouncing between parent’s houses and between pets and friends… and now continents! I’ve had dogs and cats in passing, and have tasted the joy such a connection brings, but never had the lasting connection of it being my own. But here’s the thing, to me pets represent home. They mark your territory and (barring some cats) will always greet you at the door with love and kisses. And I miss that, I miss having a set destination of home, but alas that is the predicament of being a youth these days. There will come a day, once I’m finally out of University and in a stable job… my Old Dan and Little Ann, and I cannot wait.
I’m done with Cardiff University now, exams have come and passed after many late nights and exorbitant amounts of caffeine. All that’s left is to stick around with Formula Student and help them build their race car! It will be a great summer, with incredible shenanigans already planned!
Over the Champions League weekend Max and I will be embarking on a one-shot 217 mile, 12,500 ft. elevation change ride from Cardiff to his home in East Sussex. I’m nervous and excited for this overnight, 24 hour cycle (And happy for the 10,000+ calories I’m going to eat during!).
Soon after returning to Cardiff my Momma and Daren will be visiting me in Cardiff, followed by London and Paris! It will be lovely to see them, I cannot wait to be with family again.
Soon after returning from that (busy busy, I know!) the lovely Jennifer will be coming over for a backpacking adventure across Scotland! We plan to go incredibly cheap- hitchhiking, couch-surfing, and cooking over our tiny camp stoves. However, the travel to/from is expensive, so anything you could give to help us be able to feed ourselves would be incredible, and we have a GoFundMe here . If you’ve read this far in the blog, you must like me, so please consider donating even $10 if you can? Everything to help offset costs would be very much appreciated, and are the difference between wild camping every night or actually going into town for showers and meals. Thank you very much!
Apart from that, the only big thing happening was a climbing trip over this past weekend! Kieran, Matt, Matt’s Scottish friend Lewis, and I all headed down to Pembroke for a rad weekend of tradding! It was glorious, I pushed my grades on both seconding and lead, and came back with some wicked sunburns!
Oh, I guess another notable thing is Max and I have been together six months… kinda weird, this is the longest relationship I’ve ever been in. He definitely has vastly improved my time here, and I fret the days until I leave… but wait! Max will be coming to Oregon with me, to experience the beauty of the PNW first-hand, as he’s always wanted to live there. Unfortunately he will be returning to Europe once school starts to do a year-in-industry in the carbon bike industry (go him!).
So yeah… that’s about it as a summary of post-school Meghan!
Stay awesome, folks!
Meghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhan