Growing Up, Out, and Beyond!

Well, today is officially my birthday. I'm turning the ol' dirty thirty today and in truth I couldn't feel happier. Having spent only 2 and a half months here in the Netherlands I was happy to learn that I could fill a table full of friends in a new place for my b-day dinner, be sung birthday songs in more than one language (thank you to Cananon and Luke for this), and to be able to 'virtually' open my gifts as enabled by the wondrous Skype. A little bit of shameless plugging, tonight they deserve it!

I've just got off of the phone with my twin sister who will also (in a couple of hours) be celebrating our birthday. While it is only the second time in our lives that we will not be together for our birthdays (and the second milestone birthday in my opinion) it was also exciting to evaluate where we were in our lives in terms of the places and stages we thought we’d be at and the achievements we thought we would have earned.

I have to say, I was pretty pumped when I thought about the fact that I'm living in the Netherlands, that I have an opportunity to learn a new language, and that (in my opinion) am succeeding at my research project. All these things (and the fact that my English group today told me that I looked much younger than my 30 years, thanks girls!) made me extremely satisfied with my life assessment.

Besides growing up or rather older, I also feel as though I'm growing out (not width-wise hopefully although birthday pie doesn't help) in terms of making connections and being in places where 'it' is all happening. Friday I had the pleasure of joining the first ever VISOR conference at the Vrije University in Amsterdam. This conference was dedicated to the subject of Islam in/and of Europe and it was the place to be because some really 'big names' were there, giving their papers, and debating all the hot issues. Not 9 months earlier I was quoting these great minds, analysing their research as I was struggling to survive my comprehensive exams. Now here they were right before my very eyes! No one has to worry, I contained my yearning desire to collect autographs ;) .

In addition to growing old and up, I'm also getting the sense that I'm growing beyond. I’m talking (writing) about the fact that my research project is growing beyond its original boundaries and concepts. This is of course expected considering I created this project from my study in Canada using secondary resources however, upon evaluating my project today (as I'm doing with many things) I found that I really enjoyed the direction that my research was going! So even though I'm still looking at space and place and how people use neighbourhood areas to interact (or not) I'm now also interested in such areas as access, security, and those physical aspects of the public domain. It's all so fascinating and it's so hard to follow every lead that intrigues you!

Thus, despite missing some key figures in my life who I wish were here with me today, I’m having a very happy birthday!