Vagabond

I feel like a corporate rouge. It's getting to the point where I just want to go. I don't care where, I don't care about sleeping arrangements. I just want to go. The problem is, each new trip doesn't quench my thirst for more. It only feeds the flame.

B.E.D.D.

I have decided that the five current projects I have in my life are not enough, so to top it all off this month I’m doing BEDD: Blog Every Day December. Yes, I did make it up. In classic Diana fashion, we start late. Let’s begin:

                I’m having a hard time understanding why people don’t travel more. I mean there’s this whole huge Earth and every place is extraordinarily different from the last. There are different languages and cultures and climates and people. Even in the same country there are a multitude of differences from one border to the other. I don’t understand how someone can look at all of that, how they can know all of that and still be okay with staying put.

                I just figure if I’m going to have all this time to flop around with, why not climb the bridge in Sydney harbor? Sleep with the sharks at the underwater hotel in Dubai, visit a tropical zoo in the tropics, see the Great Barrier Reef through a glass-bottom boat, get serenaded by a boys’ choir in Westminster Abbey, ride a donkey down the Grand Canyon, safari for mountain gorillas in Uganda, wash an elephant in Chiang Mai, ride a camel through the Sahara desert.

I’m just saying in China they eat dog and in Australia they’re pushing kangaroo meat and if you’re into that sort of thing why not give it a try? In France everyone dresses to the nines and in the tropics no one seems to own shoes. There are places where you can see the ocean floor when you’re in ten feet of water. How is that not intriguing? In London, where no one will meet eyes on the Tube and Tennessee where strangers can’t stop greeting one another. The Rocky Mountains look nothing like the Himalayas and both deserve a decent look.

                You’re going to tell me you’re busy, aren’t you? Finals are tomorrow, or something. Well I don’t buy it. I’m not going to tell you going to a foreign land isn’t terrifying – because it is – but it’s worth it. So I guess I just don’t understand how you can know all of that is out there and still settle for your front porch.

Summer

I really miss the days when summer was synonymous with freedom. Back when it meant there were no responsibilites except attaining the perfect tan. Before I started working seven days a week (it's been two years now. Two solid years.) I used to lay out in the sun all day, wear denim shorts, and go on little adventures. None of those things are possible anymore. I remember one time my friends and I were driving around trying to think of something to do when all of a sudden one of us said, "Let's go to Leavenworth!" and off we went.

I suppose I just thought adulthood was supposed to be more freeing than it is. And I don't even have a lot of responsibilities. When I was in High School I yearned for the freedom that came with being an adult. Now that I'm technically an adult I'm realizing these aren't the freedoms I anticipated.

I just want to be able to act on my whims. I want to be able to think about NY and fly there that night. I don't want restrictions. I never liked them much.

Inspiration

This is just a post of that which inspires me right now. Enjoy. 

(p.s. Yes I realize most of these are from Tumblr. IDC)

California Dreaming

       I'm surprising myself lately. I'm more concentrated on my life at each present moment and it's helping my productivity. That doesn't diminish the amount of the things still on my to-do list, but we're making progress.
       I'm starting to get enormously excited for the big vacation. I'm tired of working and being dependable. I have been spoiled with that day off on Sunday and now I crave freedom. The vast open road. The limitless plans. The sun. The pool. The last time I remember being warm was in Australia. That was in November. The temperatures have only risen above 80F about thrice this summer, and I bet all three of those days were Saturdays. Being a naturally frozen person, I yearn for the sun and warmth and  tanks and sunburns and flip flops and sunglasses. I'm predicting my summer will last approximately two weeks: September 10th - September 23rd.
       I'm quite curious about this trip as it will be the first one in a while that I am not taking by myself. For the most part there is a rough schedule I have to adhere to. If I don't feel like driving to California that day, I really don't have an option. If I want to walk for ten miles I probably won't be able to. Despite being "without responsibility" I'm wondering how much freedom I will actually be able to claim. On our last family vacation we had a 'relaxing' day where we stayed at the hotel the entire time. Yeah...I started going crazy. When I was in Europe, I was eating chocolate cake for dinner (and breakfast) and still losing weight because of all the explorations I went on. I want to be able to do that with this trip.                
     The cohesion of Diana's Vacations and The Family Vacation are going to be a very interesting design. And just think of all the pictures we will bring back to illustrate it!

Great Expectations

       I've really been struggling lately with living my life by certain terms. There are people I work with who continiously tell me they live vicariously through me whenever I travel. Whenever I see them their faces light up when they ask "Where are you going next?" They tell me they wish they had lived this way when they were my age. My peers praise me for my courage and bravery, and it's my parents' bragging right.
      But I don't like travelling by myself. I hate it, actually. My dad can attest to the fact that whenever he drops me off at the airport, I'm incospiciously begging him to let me off the hook. And while I've been preached to numerous times recently by the aforementioned people about how I should live my life the way I want and not worry about what other people think about it, I never believed any of them until I spoke with a friend who actually lives that way.
      So now the question remains: what do I want to do? I can tell you a few things I don't want to do: I don't want to go to Asia. I don't want to go to South Africa alone. I don't want to spend all that money and time on a cruise to Antarctica without even knowing if I like cruises. What I want is to go to Disneyworld. I want to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and I want to see London covered in snow on my birthday. I want to make music videos and movie trailers and I want to write stories that stir something in people.
       I want to have a YouTube channel and not worry about people I know IRL teasing me for it. I want to eat the cookie and not worry about caloric content (that one will take time) and I don't want to answer phone calls for a living. I want to be proud of the work I do. I don't want carpel tunnel and if I must have it I want to aquire it writing the next Chronicles of Narnia, not stuffing envelopes. I want to quit wasting away my time in a mediocre life waiting around for the extraordinary one to come.
      Steve Jobs once said, "Every morning I look in the mirror and I ask myself, if today was my last day on Earth, would I want to spend it the way I intend to spend today? If the answer is 'no' too many days in a row, I know something needs to change". Well, then it looks like it's time for a change.