Introduction: Maya

Chris is our resident writer....and he provided a swell outline to help us get rolling with our first "introductory" post. So, in the outline, we are to start with a name.  

Hello. My name is Maya....I prefer Blinkie, but whatever...I respond to most things starting with "M". My role in tribe is...well.....we're not going to get into that now, actually. Maybe later. But this "Tribal Community" thing is a ridiculously important part of my life - Tribe is the very best of friends. Real-real friends. Friends that pick you up when you're feeling down. Friends that challenge you to think more deeply about the world. Friends who love you through all your faults and also challenge you to be a better person.

Friends who tolerate some dead minks living on top of the fridge...

as well as string of vertebrae on the inside...

I'd even go so far as to say that Tribe has had the single most positive impact on my life (seriously....pre-Tribe-Maya was an angry, not-friendly, black-clad emo-pants-wearing person, with zero ambition and didn't particularly see the point in living past the age of 20...Now 23-year-old-and-graduated-Maya is mostly the opposite...but still sometimes angry).

I graduated from Houghton College with the majority of Tribe in the spring of 2012....aaaaaaand didn't really have a life plan....but after a lot (a lot a lot a lot) of encouragement from friends and professors, (and after a brief stint as a historical re-enacter/environmental educator) I ended up in Kansas as a graduate student. 

Yes....Kansas. Blue skies, tall grass, tornadoes and a very big (and beautiful) horizon.

This picture of Kansas features a hill. 

This is one of my salamanders...isn't it cute?

My degree-plan says that my major is "zoology"....maybe...?...and my thesis will one day be about salamander behavior. 
Pretty fun stuff, really.

Given the whole zoology-salamander business, you could probably guess that I'm a big fan of critters (with the exception of ticks and chiggers....I hate those devils) as well as nature-y outside-ness. I love being outdoors, hiking, camping, canoeing, peeing in the woods, finding snazzy animals, snorkeling, climbing trees, nibbling twigs, enjoying campfires....I also really liked my time as an environmental educator--I enjoy teaching kids and I appreciate their enthusiasm and excitement for the world. It taught me that life is sooooooo much more fun if you can channel that crazy sense of awe, wonder and enthusiasm that little kids have in them, you know? So, I feel like many of my blog posts will be a lot of reflections on how amazing the world is (as experienced through my everyday adventures as an....erm..."biologist in training")....As well as reflections on environmental stewardship, things that I am learning about in class, things that I am learning about in this strange world of higher education, things that I am learning about myself and things that I'm learning about Jesus-y-stuff.

...And it will probably also almost always tie back into the support I've had from Tribe, as well as how all of our different interests and passions come together in a beautifully diverse arrangement of snazz....(and how I miss them all very, very much). We are all hoping to one day end this diaspora and live together somehow. I think it'll work out, but in the mean time, we're embarking on this blogging adventure together and I couldn't be more excited!