Welcome Back!

Leah Schreier
Jan 24, 2023
5 min read

College, Work, and Life:

Welcome back everybody! I know it has been awhile, and I apologize for that, but I have been very busy. Believe it or not, but I am now halfway through my sophomore year of college. I have been taking classes at Arapahoe Community College (ACC), the local community college that's just 10 minutes down the street from my house.

Halfway through my second semester, I decided to change my major. Originally, I wanted to pursue psychology, as I am fascinated with the field. However, I've decided that since science is not my strong suit, I will be pursuing a degree in English and/or Journalism. I would love to be able to travel and write about it, which Journalism could enable me to do, but it's a very difficult field to make a living in. So, an alternative career that I would love would be an editor. Reading for a living and telling people what to fix to make their writing better is right up my alley.

My grades have been very good in college so far. Unfortunately I slacked a little bit my first semester, but since then, I've gotten straight A's. I am almost all done with an associates degree, only needing a few more classes for whichever degree I choose to pursue. I am currently trying to decide if I should just transfer whatever credits I have to a 4-year, or if I should get an associates before transferring.

I haven't settled on a college yet. I'm thinking that I'll either stay in-state, go to the West Coast (southern California would be ideal), or transfer to a school in the Northeast so I can be close to family in New Jersey. My dream would be getting into Princeton. However, I'm still loving living at home with my family, so I don't feel the need to go too far away.

I have been working a lot too. Right before the Fall semester started, I switched jobs. I left TJ Maxx and started in the bakery department at Whole Foods, right across the street from TJ Maxx, and I'm so much happier now. All of my coworkers are awesome, it's a better work environment, I'm making more money, and I actually enjoy the work. So life has been pretty good.

Aside from school and work, there hasn't been much going on for me. After a few months of heartbreak over losing Che Che (our cat of 15 years), 2022 got much better and I had a really fun summer! I spent about 10 days in Paonia, Colorado, with some extended family on their farm. I lived out my farm girl dreams that included trotting on a horse and driving a tractor! Thank you to Jason Kassoff for being so patient with me. While visiting, we went camping for a night, and when I woke up early in the morning (6:30am), I took the paddle board to the lake and saw a moose! It was a little scary because of how big and close he was, but it was super cool. I also spent a few days in Nebraska with my friends before driving my dad's new car all the way back home. The state of Nebraska isn't so great, but the company I had while there sure was. There was also the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert at Mile High that was awesome. Lastly, the family and I went back to New Jersey for a week to spend time with our beloved relatives and it felt like we were eating the entire week. It was good food though, so no complaints here! In addition to the food, we got to see a lot of family and have a beach day! I, of course, dug a big hole.

Upcoming Travels:

As most of you know, I am Jewish and have been looking forward to my Birthright trip for YEARS. Well, it's finally here; I leave March 8th!! First, I'll be spending a few days in New Jersey with family before heading to Israel on March 12th! For those who don't know about Birthright, it is an all-expenses-paid 10 day trip to Israel for young Jewish adults. The tour will take me around Israel with a group of people ages 20-24, and help us build a connection to Israel and our Jewish heritage. After the tour is over, I'll spend a little more time in Israel on my own, before meeting a couple friends in Greece for their spring break. From there, I'll be completely on my own as I backpack through Europe. I'm planning on being gone for nearly four months, coming back sometime in July.

So far, my itinerary includes all of mainland Western Europe, and some Eastern European countries, like Poland, Slovakia, and Croatia. I have begun to plan my itinerary, but it is not yet complete. I'm not going to be booking any hotels or hostels until a few days before I'll need them because I want to give myself as much freedom to explore as possible. Since I'm going to be carrying everything in a singular backpack, I'm expecting travel to be somewhat easy ("somewhat" being the key word).

I still have some more clothes to buy and logistics to figure out, but the date is getting closer and this is starting to feel more much more real. I would like to ask: if you or someone you know would be willing to let me stay for a night or two at their house, please let me know. My goal is to keep this trip as low-budget as possible. In addition, if you have any helpful tips about backpacking/traveling, please email me with those. I would love to have as much information as possible before embarking on this trip. I'm also going to work on setting up an Instagram or Facebook account so that I can post weekly pictures and little updates about where I have been. Since I won't be taking my laptop with me, I won't be posting any blogs during my time away. So, let me know if you have a preference as to how you can find out about my travels while I'm gone.

My plan is to post at least once more before I leave (again, that's in March), so there's still some time left.

At the moment, I think I have covered everything. There hasn't been much else worth mentioning.