On the Beach, Lost Things, and Moving On

This is your mantra-

do you hear it

in the orchestra

of your wrist?

you are not drowning,

it says.

These are the

shallows;

wade through.

-Victoria (awriterandnothingelse.tumblr.com)

***

My name is Cierra Correen.

I am 18 years old.

I am currently living in Cuenca, Ecuador.

I want to share something that I have learned here:how to move on.

Sunday, November 23, 2014. I went into the city to buy groceries for my very first Thanksgiving away from home. There were six of us and we kept wondering how on earth we were going to carry bags of groceries onto to a public bus all the way to the beach. I have learned that I am a natural leader, when I want to be. I cannot help it and sometimes I feel bad when I can see people shrinking in my presence as I overwhelm them with what we need to do, how we are going to do it, and what we need to do it. Put me in the middle of the forest and tell me that I have to complete a scavenger hunt within the next two hours and I will be completely silent. Put me in charge of helping to organize a Thanksgiving dinner for 35 people and I will be in my element. Figuring out how to feed that many people on a budget was actually stressful. So, after we finished grocery shopping, my sixteammates and I got coffee and decided to go see The Hunger Games: Mockingjay” in English (with Spanish subtitles). Four of us got into one taxi and two others tried to grab a taxi