on partnership.

Sheryl Sandberg has said, both in interviews and in her new book, Lean In, "I truly believe that the single most important career decision that a woman makes is whether she will have a life partner and who that life partner is."

As I was reading that section of her book, I was struck by the thought that, "whoa, I'm not even done with grad school yet and I've already been married for almost 4 years," and simultaneously: "I'm so blessed to be married to Dave.

On the weekends, he cleans (way more thoroughly than I do), does the dishes and the laundry and occasionally even makes pancakes. He takes cares of the taxes and pays the bills. He hasn't always done all those things automatically, but now I don't even have to ask. He's encouraging with words, but not only that, he moved to China for me. Love is action. And when I'm bummed about living across the world, stressed out about getting responses for my thesis survey, and worrying about the water supply, Dave is the one reminding me that this is an awesome opportunity and that we're doing this together. When we talk about our future expanding family, there are no assumptions. Nor are there any assumptions about our future geographic location. Never has Dave once turned to me and said, "We have to live in ______ because that's where my job will be." Rather, it's been, "I can live anywhere. We'll make it work." This flexibility has rewarded Dave with amazing career opportunities, but not once has he emphasized his career over mine. If anything, I've pushed him, encouraging him to get his MBA as soon as possible so that we could move out of the country for a little bit.

In college, I thought that I'd be single, travelling all over the world making my career happen. But what's even better? Travelling all over the world with my best friend and partner, discovering in bits and pieces what exactly it is that I'm meant to do. Nothing's set in stone about what I'll be doing come September when I've completed my grad school program and summer language intensive, but I'm absolutely confident that Dave has my back no matter what I -- we -- choose to do. And for that, I'm one lucky girl.

Shanghai, and a few friends.

i'm behind, obviously.

i haven't posted pictures from december or january, or february, and now it's march!

i have to admit, i've been counting down to march.

to june, actually. march is just one step closer.

only 8 more weeks of formal grad school courses.

spring is almost here.

june -- meaning family, freedom, paris... all within reach.

but i don't want to forget about these last few months either.

i've wished for the days to go by faster, but i still want to remember them.

having my college roommates come visit...

it's like i didn't know what i was missing until they came.

it was a vacation with friends who know you.

who you can spend hours drinking with by a fireplace while it snows outside.

who don't mind stopping in a random cafe or having italian food in a chinese city.

and it was strange, too, in a cool way, like parallel universes colliding.

i loved it.

and i'm working to get caught up, i really am.

p.s. that makeshift jewelry tree is made of coral I snagged from the beaches of the Philippines. way cooler than anything I could have bought.

and the painting of Winston? my (dave's) momma painted it from a picture. she's so talented... captured him perfectly. her etsy shop is in the works, but she does custom paintings, so contact me if interested!