Whirl

I'm in snowmass, CO, recovering at altitude from the overheated landscape of my kansas city grad. I'll post about the experience of my Final Oral in a little while -- it was, in many ways, the most emotionally intense experience of my life. But for now, I'll just bask in the drier, cooler temps and the glee of pedaling up to the "maroon bells" peaks yesterday. Very hard ride -- about 34+ miles altogether, with about 2800 ft of ascent -- but exhilarating and perfect. Was so tired at the end I walked my bike up the last steep 100 metres.



I had a freewheeling descent down about 1800 ft over about 6 miles from the top -- barely touched my brakes on the less than perfect rental, and didn't pedal for about 15 minutes -- and the dive was perfectly freeing and simultaneously brought me back down from the highs of the last few days. Had a few "what now?" moments last night, trying to figure out how to carve out the next life. So much bolstering of love from so many people, so much grounding in what I can do... and so many openings that feel like they'll require squeezing through.

But I can pedal up a mountain, and I have a phd. (Well, as soon as I finish the final revisions and get the doc to a proofreader). And, more than anything, I feel like I was in conversation with amazing people who heard me. I am lucky.