Kelsey: ASL, Research, Dreaming, Preparing

Hi! My name is Kelsey.

Smokey, Nellie and Me!

 I'm the fourth member of "Paragon Sustainability" which is a project that's just in the germination stage of growing into a reality. This Blog is a journal of how each of us members has their own journey and life changes as we come together on this grand adventure.

My cousin, Grant, first broached this topic to me on August 18, 2015 as we were discussing the direction in which our country was headed. Having worked several years on an organic farm, at a farmers market, and with a bachelors degree in design I agreed that it was something we could combine our skills and should try to bring this to life.

Fast forward to June 2016.

Grant and I had talked in depth about different options, ideas, locations, members, plans, etc. We realized there was one tiny little hiccup in our communication skills. You see, all of our talking was done by text messages and facebook messages because... Grant is deaf. I'm hearing. See the hiccup? It's a hiccup not the end of the road... we have VIDEO CHAT! (Thank you technology!)

Grant reminding me what "Water" is.

So I'm learning ASL long distance with the help of Grant as well as Grant's great friend and fellow Paragon member, Chris. It's left me with cramped fingers, headaches, a smiling face, painful cheeks and sore abs from laughter. Learning ASL is awesome! It's beautiful! I'm slightly bilingual as is having taken Spanish classes and traveling to Mexico about a year ago. But learning ASL has been totally different than learning Spanish. It's not all about the grammar and pronunciation... it's like learning a dance to a song in your head. Your conversation... what you want to say... that's the song. ASL is the interpretive dance that makes the other person in the conversation 'hear' and understand that same song. It's beautiful... and I'm horrible at it! :D (God love Grant and Chris with their patience!)

Meet Chris! 

Aside from learning a new language and making new friends I've been reading as much as I can about permaculture, minimalism, getting out of debt, and how to move across the country in a car.

First step in my personal adventure is to pay off my credit card and car which will officially bring me entirely out of debt. Dave Ramsey talks about women having a security gland in their bodies. For me my security gland is doing flip flops about moving from Illinois to California so my compromise to myself is I won't go anywhere until I'm totally debt free and have a safety net of money in the bank. So currently I'm working three jobs and living of the proverbial rice and beans diet as every spare dime goes to debt reduction.

Second Step that I'm slightly overlapping step one with is reduction of physical belongings. Like I mentioned I will be moving across the country in a car. A tiny bright red Ford Fiesta to be exact. With all my belongings and my fur baby, Nellie, sitting shotgun.

Sell, donate, recycle, garbage. In that order. I've started sorting out what I'll be taking with me, and what I'll be getting rid of. I never noticed how much STUFF I have! I've scanned all my paper files to my computer and burned the paper copies.

Now I'm working through my furniture and misc. art supplies left over from college. I'm selling everything I can on facebook garage sale sites and on craigslist. I'm starting now and hoping by the time it actually comes time to move I won't have a load of stuff left to get rid of.

Once I work my way through furniture and Art supplies I"m going to attack the mountain of clothes and shoes. I plan to basically become a minimalist to make my life easier as a whole. Less physical clutter, clearer mind, less to take care of and less to have to clean. I'm lazy when it comes to cleaning. I just hate it.

So here I sit staring at a mountain of laundry and an avalanche of dishes as I day dream about beautiful California and all the exciting adventure that await me there.