I wrote this essay after my first official post-pandemic, fully vaccinated trip in June 2021. My aim was to capture the confusion and humanity of that time. This essay was published in Scrawl Place in March 2022.
In 2012 I was working as a reporter for two small weekly newspapers when I received access to an invitation-only wild game feed, helding in the town of Corwith, Iowa (population: 266).
The hunters were a little wary of having a 23-year-old reporter bumbling around, but they treated me like a true guest. Even though I published one of their infamous quotes about “the worse thing I’ve ever had in my mouth.”
Seven years ago this week I climbed into a U-Haul with two dogs and a cat and changed my entire life — relocating from Iowa to California. The past seven years have been a tremendous time; inscrutably so. I thought I would use this week’s blog post to reflect on the blogs I made during that trip.