If you haven’t noticed (and I don’t blame you if you only read my posts through an RSS reader), my blog is looking a little different. First, the theme: no real story here, I just decided it was time for a change and I liked this free option. Plus it’s a lot cleaner, I think, than my previous one.

Second, and probably more importantly, I finally named the blog: Onward and Eastward. I wasn’t necessarily opposed to choosing a name, I just didn’t think it was necessary (and I’m not very good at naming things). But when I decided to give it a proper name, this name came pretty quickly. There’s a simple enough explanation: I grew up and spent most of my life in California, and now I’m living permanently in Iowa after attending college here for the last two years of undergrad. Since three and a half years is a pretty long time for a 20something, within which lots of things tend to happen, it’s no surprise that I can barely recognize the 20-year-old that decided to go to University of Iowa after driving through the city for a few minutes on the way to Chicago (well, there’s more to that story, but I’ll leave that for another time).

Anyway, in this vein, the title of the blog is pretty simple. Onward to new life experiences, eastward from the west coast to the Midwest. It’s strange that the last few years of my life have been so busy yet can be boiled down to three words, but who am I to complain about brevity? After all, brevity is clarity.

I start my second semester of graduate school tomorrow, so that’ll be fun. Maybe. But probably not. I’ll keep you posted.