​Why My $200 Jeans Feel Better Caked in Mud

This afternoon, as I made my way home at the end of another highly physical work day, I looked down at my $200 Citizens of Humanity skinny-jeans and took note: Faded, caked in mud, stretched in all the wrong places (due to constant washing and drying at the local coin laundry), and near-holes everywhere.

I shook my head in disbelief and smiled. No one would ever believe I traded my on-trend, fashionista wardrobe to move to Hawaii and build an off-grid homestead. Some of the time, I can hardly believe it myself.
 
So why do my jeans feel better now more than ever?
 
Because my body has never felt this good. It is healthy, lean and strong.
 
Because I am turning a dream into reality with my partner and husband by my side.
 
Because I have learned more in the past year and a half than I have in a very, very long time.
 
Because my personal boundaries have been stretched (in all the right places) to make me realize that I am stronger, smarter and more resilient than I ever gave myself credit for.
 
Because this is the adventure of a lifetime and I am exactly where I am supposed to be.
 
Prior to my move to Hawaii, my jeans relished in trendy coffee shops, in salon chairs to get my hair, nails and lashes done, sat for hours driving in city traffic, and sauntered on imagined catwalks at the mall (caught in a seemingly endless eddy of consumerism). They were concerned with looking good, being on trend, staying dry, warm, safe, unchallenged and ultimately, bored.
 
Today my jeans have hiked trough jungles, climbed a volcano, milked goats, dug ditches, painted a house, stained a deck, cracked coconuts with a machete, shovelled cinder, hauled garbage and building materials of all kinds.
 
They’ve seen sun, rain, wind, dirt, mud, insects, animals, barbwire and even a fall or two.
 
And that’s precisely why they've never looked better.

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