Countdown

Two months.

In two months I'll be boarding a plane with nothing other than a backpack, a purse, probably a churning stomach, and an ungodly amount of anxiety heading for Guadalajara in Jalisco, Mexico. My stomach's already uneasy, I keep forgetting to be excited.

For those who don't know, I'm Claudia. I'm Latina, I'm fat, I'm queer, I'm mentally ill, I'm an artist, I'm a writer, I'm bad at blogging, I'm a recipient of the Adventure Learning Grant. I tried starting a blog about my journey thus far but it felt forced. This still feels forced but I'm a little more inclined since now I bought a plane ticket, this whole thing isn't so abstract anymore. To briefly explain the Adventure Learning Grant (ALG), it was something I heard about as a freshman at Fairhaven College, part of Western Washington University. 20k to pursue whatever the heck your heart desired? Yeah, sign me up! So I applied as a sophomore and I got the damn thing. Cue 10 months of chaotic panic, crying, excitement, and changing plans. I truly did not believe I'd receive it, and once I did all I could think was "oh god what did I do".

I'm still thinking "oh god what did I do", but at least now with a little more confidence, gratitude, and acceptance that it's actually reality. So, this will be my second-first blog post (let's not talk about that mess I wrote back in winter). I know it's short intro with hardly any information, but it's a start. For those of you who want to stay up-to-date with what I'm doing in regards to the grant, and for those of you interested in applying yourself, I'm going to try and post fairly often on a variety of topics from packing to emotions to of course, art.

Wish me luck and feel free to shoot me some questions!

--Claudia