Somehow Still Moving

The rest of our time in India went well--not always smoothly, but Asad & I came out smiling. We found friends to crash with just outside of Delhi in Gurgaon. This spot was at times frustratingly far from the bus/train stations and things that we wanted to check out in Delhi, but our hosts the Kumars were not to be surpassed in hospitality. We were fed very well and received many rides from their driver.

In a small trip south and west of Delhi--the Golden Triangle--we made it to all of those places you see in pamphlets about it India: the palaces, shrines, the Taj Mahal. I particularly enjoyed the respite we found in a small town called Pushkar, the quiet in the middle of the storm of India's rickshaws, crowds, and heat.

From there, we headed north to the Himalayas, went rafting and camping near Rishikesh--where the Beatles hung out while at an ashram in India--and spent 4 days hiking from Joshimath to Tapovan via the Kuari Pass. All of this was great, though the style of camping was different--I wasn't used to having the guides cooking everything for you--and the India mountain roads were brutal on the stomach. Apparently, we came a week or two before a lot of the major trails were open, and a lot of places just a day more to the north seemed really cool.

Of course, there's more--the experience at the Golden Temple, the border-closing ceremony with Pakistan, and a couple days up on boat in Kashmir--but I'm already on my way, again. I've been home in Nashville almost exactly two weeks, but it's felt like nothing. We had my brother Drew's graduation from med school and a good part of the family here for that. So for a number of days we were happily caught doing family activities--cards with grandma, days at the lake--and my favorite things around Nashville--Pancake Pantry, bluegrass at Station Inn.

The next week afterward, marked the beginning of the job search, a.k.a. "time for Matt to figure out his life." I've been reading on the internet and making runs to the library constantly. After a bit of research, I started making phone calls and talking to people. Now that I've decided that I don't want to do medicine, I've been working to figure out the next step to work with the environment and business as my focus. There have been plenty of good conversations and promising possible opportunities to work with consulting and/or engineering groups even around Nashville. But before making that push to seal something, the road called, again.

Actually, my friend from college Reva called a couple days ago and reminded me that graduation was this weekend, which I had told a lot of people that I would try to make it to this year. I found a cheap flight up to Providence--god bless, Southwest--and I'm on my way... tonight. It's probably a good idea because I'm going to have a number of chances to meet and talk to alumni working in some of the areas that I'm planning to go into.

So, since I was already up there, it seemed to make sense just to take a couple buses down to New York and D.C. to crash with friends for a couple days and maybe continue conversations with people working in the environmental industry in these places--where I know there's a bit more of it going on than in Nashville. I just have to find them. And I will.

And suddenly it seems that I won't be back home and settled to find a job for another month. Yes, this trip through the northeast is only a week or two, but I have a friend who will be driving from Baltimore to where we will work fixing boats and launching them for a couple weeks at our old summer camp. I'm psyched for it. It's always hard to pass up paid sailing, but I'm kind of ready to be in one place and getting something done. It seems that part of that will have to wait, but I'll still be working to push this job search and research of grad schools.