I've kept this page blank for quite some time. Sometimes I'd open the page up to edit, but I'd just stare at the screen for awhile, then shut my computer and go do something more interesting.
But when I read a blog I like to know who I'm reading about. So here's my "about me" blurb: it's this picture. I once put too much soap into the dishwasher in my college apartment (which I lived in with six other girls—I have never seen so much hair in the shower drain), and it wasn't too long before I noticed bubbles coming out the bottom and sides. Seriously, you can't see it in this picture but it was everywhere. I freaked out, stopped the washer, and my roommate and I just stared at the mess in silence for a moment, then broke out laughing at the same time. Well at least it's soap, so you're basically just mopping the floor! My roommate, the eternal optimist. Then I grabbed one of the film cameras I collect (no, it's not Instagram) and snapped a picture which, oddly, is really beautiful to me now. The bubbles and the mismatched dishes.
In trying to write this page, this is the only picture I could think of to describe myself.
Anything else you'd like to know? Of course there's the boring first-date stuff: I'm a college student studying Comparative Literature. I try to speak Hungarian and French, but still sound very much like a gringa in both. I prefer living in big cities, and I love being outside. I am a vegetarian. I've been skiing since about the time I learned to walk. I work on a team of researchers creating the most comprehensive compilation of information on the status of women in the world. I like tea.
You can find my writing on various blogs and other publications—some examples here, here and here. That last one was written when I was 14, so don't judge me. It was also the first time I was published in a magazine, which was surprisingly embarrassing. I think it's because it was so personal. And then here I am, half a decade later, and I'm trying to do the same thing on my blog, which is terrifying. But I want to create something that you don't see often in blogs, and that's part of the whole Gilead In Bloom idea, that gilead is symbolic of healing. Also the title of one of my favorite books.
So that's me. And here's you. I keep up this blog with the hope that you will connect to something I write. I believe in beautiful moments and surprise friendships, especially during dark periods of life. The connection I've found with the written word has been a source of comfort and encouragement for me throughout my life—the way others express their pain, or their joy, or their conviction. In the end that's what this blog is about. I hope that it may be a thread of light among millions of other threads of light that are there for you to grasp in times of struggle. May you find hope enough to see them, and may such a search lead you here.
