I will openly admit that there are times when I do not like my town, or whatever environment I'm operating in, whether it be co-workers, family, volunteer organizations, circles you run in, whatever.

And really, I don't think it's realistic to love everyone all the time (see post on my solution to this problem).

But, all that said, I believe in community.

I believe is community is a powerful thing. The kind of thing that can move mountains.

I've always had strong communities where ever I've been. Through school, church, sports, music, activities, family, military, travel, work, journalism, blogging. 

Some of them were communities I was born into, or forged through shared experiences like college, but most, I've built myself. Slowly and steadily.

The more I move around, travel, age, the more I realize how lucky I've been to have all that. 

I went home over the summer for my sister's baby shower and to see my grandparents. One of my grandfathers passed away in April and it was killing me to be so far away from loved ones when all of that was happening.

While I was visiting my grandmother in New York, she took dad and me to a graduation at a community school for children with cerebral palsy. 

My grandmother had helped with their garden and so had my grandfather. 

They didn't know those children, and still they helped make something beautiful for them. 

Parents and families went wild with applause throughout the ceremony. I found myself tearing up as I watched the staff and the families celebrate what these kids had accomplished and that my grandparents had been some small part of it. 

That was community. 

People coming together for a common cause, a common goal, to serve, to help, to support, to encourage.

Now I'm in my second year of living in a new place. Where I don't have family, other than M. Where I don't have 10-15 years of life spent in this town. Where people don't know my past, my skills, my love of community.

I'm rebuilding my community. In a new town, with new friends, new job, new connections, new culture.

I won't lie, it can be tough. But, i've also seen what community can do. Rally after tragedy, offer support in tough times, come together to build something wonderful.

There will always be days when I don't love my neighbor, but I hope I never stop believing in community.

How do you build community?

This has been nagging at me for quite some time now. And it might expand a bit beyond the actual definition of respect, but these things are interconnected. 

And let me start my saying, I'm not perfect. 

I can be disrespectful, inconsiderate and downright obnoxious sometimes and I know it. Sometimes I know I'm doing it and simply don't care, but sometimes I'm just unleashing emotions that I've lost control of for a (hopefully) brief moment after being pushed too far or being stretched too thin.

But having worked/interned in a variety of newsrooms, nonprofits, museums, hockey teams, bagel shops and also volunteered for more nonprofits, there are some general themes and regular occurrences that are guaranteed to drive me bonkers. 

That said, I believe in respect. At work, at home, at play, everywhere. 

It doesn't mean being nice to someone just because they exist. 

But it does mean recognizing that there will always be someone smarter, faster and better than you. Learn from that person. 

It also means that respect is not given out like cookies. It has to be earned. 

I come home whining about this a lot lately and M keeps telling me that I sell myself short. He reminds me that I may not be the oldest person in the room, but I have experience, skills and expertise in certain areas that make me someone legitimately able to wield some influence and that it's truly my duty to do so in order for things to improve.

I remember being a young journalism student, then intern, then rookie reporter. There were plenty of things I thought could be done better. But instead of telling those who had been around longer than I had how to do their jobs, I watched, learned and took all of that to inform the kind of journalist I wanted to be.

Instead of telling others how to behave, I first made sure I was doing my best work, quickly and without complaint. 

And I can promise you, that alone began to earn the respect of my peers and those who had been in the business far longer than I had. Then I kept doing it.

It's also a little of letting people do their work. I don't think I understood this so much as a rookie, but when I'm up to my neck in work and am putting out fires left and right, it's not a good time to pester me with something that you can easily Google, or nonsense that is not at all relevant to the tasks at hand. And for the love of all things, don't respond to a very detailed email that has answered every possible anticipated questions with a single line asking something that I just told you. 

And a little bit of realizing that not everyone around you wants to choke on the perfume you apparently bathed in or listen to your recap of American Idol or whatever else you did last night. Once in awhile, fine, be loud, laugh, goof off, but if that's all anyone ever sees you do, I guarantee you, I will not respect you. I might eventually throw a box of paperclips at you.

There's always that old saying "on oversight on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part." 

I believe in recognizing how much you don't know. I know a lot about what I do, but also feel overwhelmed on a pretty regular basis with the sheer amount of things I don't know. Hell, there's plenty out there that I don't even know exists, let alone know and understand. Work to know as much as you can in your field, be confident in your knowledge, but don't assume that race is finished. Keep learning and getting better.

I believe that always talking about how much you know will usually expose just how little you actually know.

I believe in admitting that you're wrong, or just deferring to the person who knows more about a particular thing than you do. Or go really big and learn from that person.

I believe in thanking those around you for a job well done when deserved. On the flip side, don't complain, criticize or be otherwise a jerk when you were not the person who did all the work. If you know how to do something, do it. If you don't, let those who do get it done and then say thanks.

I believe that "reply all" is very rarely a good idea.

I believe in learning the lay of the land before starting a crusade to shake things up. But when things really need to shake up, learn it fast.

I believe that sometimes you have to work within an imperfect structure to get things done. Complaining about the imperfections won't get the work done any faster. 

At some point, you have to roll up your sleeves and DO something. Talking about ideas is great, complaining about everything that's going wrong is fine sometimes, but if you really want my respect, get to work. Put those ideas in motion, start fixing those things that are wrong.

Really, above most things, I believe in being good at what you do and letting that speak for itself. I used to tell my college news staff all the time, "Don't tell me that I'm wrong, prove to me that you're right." If you want me to think you're good at what you do, don't tell me, show me. 

Lately, I've been super busy with all kinds of projects at work, the rink, journalism organizations, and more. I can't say I've been super on top of it and gotten everything done that needed to get done, but if I'm digging in and devoting my time to raise the bar, my irritation with everything listed above tends to go through the roof. 

So perhaps I'm being judgmental and intolerant, but I'm having a very hard time understanding why such simple things seem to be so hard. And I have an even harder time just letting it all go and carrying on with my own awesomeness (which is usually M's advice).

If you want respect, earn it. When others earn it, respect them. 

What about you? What do you believe it when it comes to respect or professional life? What are you pet peeves?

The first time I left the country, excluding Canada and the Rio Grande as a kid, I did it alone.

And the first time I really left the country, I went big. 

I jetted off to New Zealand for a semester abroad. 

I considered England or Ireland, but figured I could go there for a long weekend if I really wanted to, but going to New Zealand took commitment. I knew, even as a college kid, that getting clear across the glove would be difficult in life after college. 

It's one of the smartest things I've ever done. 

In the months before I left, I did all my reports for an international relations class on New Zealand. I read everything I could find and Googled the heck out of the country that's roughly the size of Colorado.

When I got there, everything was new and different and amazing.

My semester abroad exposed me to a new culture, way of thinking and so many new people with experiences vastly different from my own.

That trip started a chain of international adventures that were genuinely life changing and so I'm starting the I Believe... series with why I believe in travel. 

+ You get outside your comfort zone. At home, you do your routine in the same places with the same people and there's nothing wring with that but you sure learn a lot about yourself when your routines go out the window. You try new food, new cafes, new workouts, new adventures, new views and try things you might never have the guts to do at home. 

+ You broaden your perspective. I was just talking to M this morning about the value of travel (and I don't mean luxury resorts or packaged for you tours) and how it exposes you to different ways of life, different perspectives, different education systems, value systems, political systems. I went to school in New Zealand with students from New Zealand and the rest of the world. They approached their studies very differently than we do back home and I was able to hear what some of the rest of the world things about my home country. You also learn how small the world can be when you Donald Duck in PIcton, New Zealand. It makes you think about how the world values your nation and what you really want to share with the world. 

+ You learn to need only what you can carry. There's a form of simplicity you start to value as you travel. You might want that cool souvenir that you don't particularly have any use for, but if you can't carry it, well then you're not getting it. You learn to pack what you need and realize just how little you actually need to get by. I'm very particular with my souvenir buying since everything has to make it home in the same rucksack I left with and you start to truly value experiences over things, because all the things you actually need fit in one bag. My orange rucksack is my faithful travel companion that might have logged more miles than I have, enduring planes, trains, boats and more.

+ You learn more about you. Your likes and dislikes. Your dreams and fears. Your strengths and weaknesses. When I travel, I get up every morning and see where the day takes me. Sometimes I have a plan, sometimes I wander and explore. At home, I have deadlines, errands, to-do lists, emails, laundry and all the day to day tasks of being an adult. Without those constraints, it's as if you get to start from scratch and construct a different life with the things you like most. Of course when you get home, those day to day tasks come back, but sometimes you bring those found-while-traveling habits home and infuse your normal routines with so much more. You learn how you handle crisis situations without a cell phone handy to call your dad to come pick you up. You learn how you handle setbacks and your capacity to adapt. You realize that if you can handle being stranded in the middle of nowhere in a country where you don't speak the language that you can probably handle flat tires, spilled dinners and bad days at work. 

+ You learn how small you are. Traveling, really traveling, teaches you that the world does not, in fact, revolve around you or even your country. You learn that the American way is not the only way or even the best way. It doesn't make you any less American, or love your country any less, but it helps you understand how our country came to be, what makes us different, what makes us great and what makes us not so great. I genuinely love my country, but understanding that it's a big world and we're but one nation of many older cultures and societies allows you to develop a far more mature appreciation for your homeland. You see the great things in the world, but also the needs. You spend a lot of time thinking about what you want your place in the world to be.

+ You see it with your own eyes. True most of the most iconic places in the world look exactly the same in real life as they do in pictures, but there is absolutely no picture that compares to the "I am here" feeling. I've been to a few wonders of the world, both ancient and natural. I've been to Venice, the sinking city. On all of those trips, seeing some of those things literally takes your breath away. Seeing with you own eyes, walking the same halls as people who changed the world, touching the same rocks that ancient civilizations built a mountain city with, hiking glaciers that might disappear in my lifetime. Those are life changing experiences. Those are moments worth leaving the iPhone behind. Worth not tweeting or Instagramming or Facebooking, but simply being present. Breathe it all in. Those are moments no one can take away, no matter what. But, you can also take photos so you can look back and smile when you say "I was there. I did that." I'm standing in this London phone booth wearing a fleece vest I bought in New Zealand, while visiting a London-based friend I met in New Zealand.

While driving back to Great Falls yesterday after our weekend away (more on that adventure later), I was thinking about the blog and what I wanted to with it. 

I decided that I had more to say and I was going to start saying it. 

Progress on the renovation has been slow of late, but I promise as it gets colder outside, you'll be seeing more of that. For the rest of the warm weather, we'll be relocating the chickens into the windbreak area and building their permanent coop. 

So of course there will still be more chickens, and farming and renovation posts to come, but there will also be more thoughts. 

I've always been a writer and it's been a long time since I really wrote. Work writing is all facts and almost always on deadline. Those stories aren't about me, they're about informing the community on what's happening in their community. 

Some of my posts here have been more writerly than others, but I've decided to recommit to the actual act of writing. To having a thought, thinking it out, writing with intention and with purpose and hopefully a little bit less on the fly when I'm feeling guilty about not having posted in awhile. 

And that's about when I had the genius idea to create this series, what I'm calling the "I Believe..." series. 

For the entire month of September, and hopefully well beyond that, I will post weekly on something I believe. It will likely range widely in topic, length, seriousness and style. 

If I'm being honest, this is for me, but also for you. I sometimes struggle to share my thoughts on many things on this blog because I'm constantly worried about how it might impact my work (I'm a journalist remember? And while we fight for the freedom of speech and press, our freedom to truly speak our minds is often restricted as we put a huge emphasis on being impartial and unbiased. Trust me, it's like walking a tight rope sometimes). 

I will be posting an "I Believe..." post each week. I won't restrict myself to a set day because life happens and while I work well on deadline, I don't want to force myself to write when it doesn't feel natural or genuine. But, it will be weekly. 

I will also be reaching out to my friends, both from the blogging world and real life, to share their thoughts throughout the month. 

And I invite you to do the same. 

Post what you believe and share it. I'll be adding a linkup with my posts and invite you to share. If you're interested in guest posting here as part of the series, let me know at [email protected]. 

Until then, I leave you to ponder what you believe and encourage you to join me in this series. 

Hope you all had a lovely holiday weekend and soaked in those last rays of sunshine.