Here you can always catch me in

“Will you join in our crusade? Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see?”
-The People’s Song, Les Miserables

The above words serve as the inspiration for the title of this blog. I was first introduced to Les Miserables the musical in high school, during which time I played in the pit orchestra for our school’s production. It’s stuck with me ever since. Given the abundance of Les Mis fans out there, I was quite surprised and, admittedly, pleased when I found out that the name “beyondthebarricade” had not yet been taken. I’ve had an interest in blogging for a while now, and I hope this happy chance will inspire me to write well and write often.

Oh! I appear to be getting ahead of myself! It would be kind of rude to continue on without an introduction, so here it is. This is me:

I’m Sarah, a 22-year old college student attempting to graduate and move on to bigger and better things, namely medical school. My dream is to become an epidemiologist. I want to be that person who travels to exotic locales, tracking down the world’s rarest and deadliest diseases while wearing a space suit. Traveling to new places is one of my favorite things, and it particularly appeals to be in the context of epidemiology because I’d get to go to actual places, not just tourist traps. I hunger to see the real world that exists beyond the barricade, and maybe make a difference there. For now, though, the part of the world that I currently inhabit is the small town of Union City, Indiana.

How did I get here? It’s a pretty unusual story, I must say. My childhood was quite stationary. I grew up in Royal Oak Michigan. During my entire childhood, my family lived in the same house, on the same street, in the same city. The first time I ever moved was to Huntington, West Virginia, where I attended (and am still attending, sort of) Marshall University. Little did I know it would be the first of many.  During my freshman year of college, my dad lost his job and spent the entire school year looking in vain for a new one. Jobs, especially those in the automobile industry, do not grow on trees, you know. As it happened, one did about a month after I came back home for the summer. It hung there in front of our faces, ripe for the plucking. The only stipulation was that we had to pack up and move to California. Oh, and we had to be there in a month. Oh, and we only had ten minutes to decide whether or not we wanted to accept the offer. Talk about pressure! We accepted, of course, and in a month’s time there we were, in beautiful Mission Viejo, California. I didn’t have much time to get acquainted with the area, as I had to go back to school, but I came back the next summer, during which we moved yet again to nearby Trabuco Canyon. Living in California was quite interesting. We were in Orange County, so of course everything looked immaculate. However, I didn’t know anyone there and it was really quite boring. The next year, I got an apartment in Huntington and stayed there for the summer. When my lease ran out, I moved into a house with one of my sorority sisters, her boyfriend, and another friend of theirs.

That brings us to about the beginning of this past summer. Shortly before I moved out of my apartment, I was told that my dad had lost his job in California, and that my family was going to move back to Michigan, because the cost of living in California was too high. They moved in with my grandmother. My mom got a job at a local bank, and my dad started searching for jobs yet again. Where his last job metaphorically grew on a tree, he created his new one out of thin air. An automobile company in a place called Union City, Indiana was working on a project very similar to ones my dad had worked on. He called them up, regaled him with his extensive knowledge of the subject, and convinced them that they direly needed him. He moved here in late August, and started trying to convince me to move in with him. At first I was reluctant, because I didn’t want to leave my friends in Huntington. However, the promise of abundant food and no rent won me over, and by the end of October I was here!

 It’s a lot different here than all the other places I’ve lived. This town is about as middle-of-nowhere as you can get, but it’s quiet and peaceful. Real estate in this area is also super inexpensive. The rent on our four-bedroom house, centered around a freakin’ courtyard, is $650 a month. Add cable, internet and utilities, and it’s still way less than the upwards of $2000 a month we paid in California in rent alone. People are also really nice here. I was at Dollar General yesterday, and the system froze while a customer was trying to do a return. Before long, the ONE employee in the entire store was faced with a line of about ten people. Did the lady with the return complain about how long it was taking? No. Did alllllllllllllllll the people in line complain about how long it was taking? No. We all just stood there, patiently, commiserating with the employee and talking about our plans for Thanksgiving. HUGE difference from what people in Huntington would do!

If you’ve read this far, congratulations! I’ll be the first to admit that I’m very wordy, and I’m about to get even wordier. Most people who read this probably know me, but on the off chance someone who doesn’t know me stumbles upon this blog, I do feel obliged to tell a little bit more about me.

I used to be incredibly shy, back in the day. In middle school and high school, I was the awkward, ugly, unpopular girl. I had my circle of friends, whom I loved dearly, but I rarely tried talking to anyone else, because I was scared that they would see me the way I saw myself. That all changed when I went to college. By going to a school where nobody else from my high school went, I deliberately put myself into a situation where if I wanted friends, I would have to be more outgoing. And it worked! It wasn’t easy talking to so many people I didn’t know, but in time things got better and better. I joined a sorority my sophomore year, and it was one of the best decisions of my life. Having such a close group of sisters who loved me for who I was did wonders for my self-confidence, and I’m happy to say that I’ve successfully made the transition from total introvert to frequent extrovert. My biggest passion that’s not related to my future career is crocheting, as old-lady as that sounds. I love the feel of the hook in my hand, the promise of an untouched skein of yarn, and the challenge of a new pattern. I also will read whatever I can get my hands on, provided it’s non-fiction, and I watch unbelievable amounts of Law and Order: SVU on a regular basis.

I have a boyfriend named Alex who is so amazing, he gets his own paragraph! I met him in Vegas over the summer and we’ve been together, well, practically since we met. Unfortunately, he lives in Baltimore, so I’ve only gotten to see him one time since Vegas. He’s a self-proclaimed douchebag, but he has yet to act at all douche-y to me. He texts me in the middle of the night to tell me that he misses me, he tells me how pretty I am all the time and, most importantly, he likes me for who I am: the good, the bad, and the painfully awkward. I would post a picture of him on here, but I’m not sure if he wants to be plastered across the whole Internet, so I’ll make do with one of his arm making me blueberry pancakes. J

I also have a cat named Shenanigans. My friends found her on the street and took her in, and then gave her to me about a year ago after their landlord found out they had her. She’s the most adorable little lease-breaker ever, and I couldn’t ask for a better behaved cat. I also live with our dog Trixie, but she’s technically the family dog and not all mine.

Here, HAVE A SHENANIGANS!

I’d like to accomplish a few things with this blog. Hopefully I’ll be able to use it as a tool to keep in touch with my family and friends, and update them about my life here. I also have thoughts and opinions, and even an emotion or two on occasion. These all need outlets, and that too shall be a use for this blog. I also kinda sorta maybe made a New Years resolution to write more often and I haven’t been writing, well, at all. Maybe this will change that.

I mean, look. I’ve already written over 1500 words. That’s a good-sized essay, right there! And it came so easily, too. Who knows? Maybe there’s hope for the aspiring writer in me after all.

Cheers!

-Sarah