Another two months in Seattle, and quite a bit has changed. After a short stint at the organic market I was excited to move on to a new position with Seattle Stair and Design. My time with PCC was beneficial, I learned quite a bit and, as I predicted, found a foothold in the city. However, while they are a great organization and I respect the work they are doing I didn't feel personally fulfilled, and thus kept my eyes peeled for potential opportunities. Which led to my current job as a woodturner with Seattle Stair and Design.

Seattle Stair is a small company of committed craftsmen creating custom built stairs for clients across the county. My specific job responsibilities primarily involve working on the lathe to create balusters, newel posts, spindles, caps, and finials for wooden staircases. I've found the work to be challenging, rewarding, and fulfilling. It allows me to work with my hands and utilize my skills as a sculptor in the effort to create beautiful and functional objects. The learning curve is arguably the steepest I have ever encountered, but I find myself gaining confidence everyday and am excited to be picking up the skills of a production woodworker.

In addition to the rewards of a new and fulfilling line of work I'm also enraptured by the city of Seattle and the general atmosphere of the Pacific Northwest. I've found it easy to enact behaviors which were brewing in my mind during college, but were never fully expressed due in part to lack of support and lack of access. I'm primarily referring to environmental consciousness of this region and the ease with which environmentally friendly actions can be preformed. Recycling is the standard, public transit is easy and accessible, local food and regional economies are embraced and supported. Personally, I've begun composting, growing garlic, and buying food from a local CSA. While some of these opportunities would certainly have been attainable in Crawfordsville, the wealth of resources and synergy surrounding such ideas in Seattle has helped me realize ambitions that have been percolating for quite some time. Some of these actions are small simple steps, yet combined they help create the vision of a society which lives more lightly on the earth. I've come to embrace the idea that positive acts performed on the local and personal level provide the basis for widespread social change. At this point everyone has heard the shouting and screaming, most people recognize that the earth is in peril, but many are tired of the incessant negative rants of environmentalists; it seems to me, that our challenge now is to envision a wholesome sustainable future and then enact it.

Ok back to my life (but branching off of that mindset), a couple weeks ago Nate and I were lucky enough to attend a tree planting and private concert with one of my favorite musicians and social activist John Butler. The setting was ideal, with a crowd of 150 and the stage set against a wall of pine trees with the Puget Sound and Olympic Mountains as the back drop. After the show we were pretty excited to share some words with John Butler and get our picture taken with him. Its been great having such a close friend and Wabash buddy out here in Seattle as I adjust to living far away from most of my family and friends. Though I'm not living with Nate anymore we're still able to keep in close contact, and with fond memories of my time on Whidbey I've included the photo collage he pieced together with pictures taken from his back porch on a clear day (increasingly few and far between out here at this time of year)

In the next couple weeks Nate and I have a couple of snowshoeing/camping trips planned which I'm certainly looking forward to. I'm also anticipating my parents visit in late January; I can't wait to show them around to the places I've come to live work and play. Come February I'll be hosting a beer tasting for my birthday and heading to a bluegrass festival down in Tacoma. It'll be a busy, but enjoyable month to be sure.

I was informed a couple weeks ago that this would be my final entry for The Graduate blog, and with that in mind I feel to need to bring some closure to this open-ended-online-follow-the-arc-of-my-life-writing. I've certainly enjoyed writing these entries as a means to reflect upon the course my life is taking after college. I'm not sure if anyone has found advice in the words I've written, but I hope I've been able to convey that passion and an openness to opportunity will always serve you well in life. Finding your way after college is interesting, frustrating, tumultuous, and exciting. Bills do suck, you may have to settle for a less than ideal job, but never forget your inspirations, follow them and you'll find your life fulfilled.

Be well.

Nic

Note: Being a part of the blog helped me trace the arc of my life during a very interesting transitional, and I'm glad I'll have it as a reference point in the future. In fact I liked the experience so much that I have decided to continue blogging/online journaling through a personal website which I recently set up www.NicBitting.com. I'm not sure how big my readership is/was, but this would be a great way for people to continue following my exploits if they so choose. In addition to journal entries the website will also feature pictures of my artwork as well as some of my woodturning in the near future.