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Being lost is the only way that you will know if you are ever found.

Feeling a little blue. There are going to be some big life changes that are going to happen in my life in the very, very near future. I’m moving away from home. It’s not like I haven’t moved before. In fact I have several times, if going off to college counts. My mother asked me today, as we were driving through the back country roads in the area where I live, “Is there any thing that I can help you with before you leave?”  I proceeded not to answer her but to sit there and think about all that does need to get done and what doesn’t. I was about to answer when she asks me another question. She asks me this, “Do you ever feel like you don’t belong anywhere?”  “STORY OF MY LIFE!!” is what I thought in my head. This made me start to think. A lot. What I have found is that I am not good company when I am thinking. I have realized that writing is what I need to do to get my thoughts out, no matter how minuscule.

Here are my thoughts. Yes, I feel like I don’t belong in a certain place. Yes, I feel that sometimes I am running away from being comfortable, because comfort can be frightening.  Yes, I do feel lost as to where I need to be. No, I don’t feel like I will have this lost feeling forever. Yes, it will scared the ever-living shit out of me when the day comes where I feel comfortable walking this life I lead. Yes, people look at me like I am crazy for moving 2,000+ miles away for a job, that I could get in the town I currently live in. No, I don’t think I am crazy for moving.  Yes, moving away from everything that I know is exciting, and a little bit stupid.

Not trying to sound conceded but here is how I know that people love me, want what is best for me, and want me to stay. My parents show their love and support by never asking me questions. They may not approve of everything that I do, but they never let me know it. This is a double edge sword. Sometimes I want the guidance, and on the other hand some times I just want to tell them what I am doing, with no guilt in doing it.  My parents are truly amazing and supportive people when it comes to my wild ideas. Like taking a solo trip to the UK just after a terrorist attack. One of my best friends (I have three, but this is the one I have known the longest), calls me up after I tell her that I have an interview in Alaska. This is how I know she wants what is best for me; She asks me if I can handle the weather and dark winters in Alaska. Later, she recommends me getting mood enhancing lights. She truly knows me and how I think. Which is a little frightening, really.  I called up one of my other best friends and told her I got the job and this was her reply, “Nooooooo.”  She later apologized for her unenthusiastic reply to my news. I know that she just wants to keep me around. That is how I know that she is happy for me. My final best friend, she is the one that screamed into the phone, “OMG that is so exciting!” Then, she told me that it gives her a reason to go back to Alaska.

People show their emotions in a variety of ways. Read the above paragraph again if you don’t understand what I mean. I just tend to have moments where I feel a little lost and confused at the direction that my life is heading. If you were to ask my 16-year-old-self where I would be right now, I would have told you Hawaii.

Well 16 year-old-self, I’m going to the very opposite, Alaska. So suck it up buttercup. Life changes. Those changes are what makes life a little more exciting. A little more adventurous. And maybe, just maybe, those changes will lead to a life that doesn’t make you feel as lost as the life you are currently living. Cheers to being lost. Being lost is the only why that you will know if you are ever found.

Lost Traveller

#losttraveller #lost2foundtraveller

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I’m Just a Traveller

This is the post excerpt.

Have you ever had a song that was just stuck in your head and it just wouldn’t leave that wonderful brain of yours? Of course you have! Everyone has this problem. Whenever I travel, I have one particular song that comes to my head. I may just be on a bus going from one end of town to the other or on a train heading across the country. I could just be walking on a boardwalk that I am unfamiliar with. This one song always registers. Now if I could just get some loud speakers set up and a camera rolling, I could have my own sound track to the story of my life. Wouldn’t it just be great to be walking around somewhere and that song, that would fit magically with your life, just happens to come swarm around you.

That darn song that comes into my head, that I just can’t help but sing the chorus to, it is by a singer that goes by the name Chris Stapleton. Ever heard of him? He is all the rage now in the country music industry. People around were I live just love him. I live in an area of lots of corn stalks and bean fields, so take that info for what it’s worth. Any who. So here I am stuck with the song “Traveller” in my head (May I add that we spell traveller the same, go us, Christ Stapleton!).  I just bought another ticket to go to yet another place.

There are lots of people in my everyday life that are, dare I say it, impressed with how much I travel. What they don’t know is the reason for my travel. I have an addiction. It can be an expensive addiction, but not damaging to my body, soul and mind, like some addictions can be.  Whenever I happen to have a bad day at work, or something in my life I just feel like I need to run. I need to escape. At this point I am feeling lost and the only way to feel, even just a little bit found, is to travel.  So I book a flight or plan a weekend away, because that is just one step closer to spending time in another world where I can then reflect on who I am, what my purpose is, and why I matter in this world.

Each day I travel, I lose a little bit of my lost self, and become a little bit more found.

#Lost2FoundTraveller

 

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Maybe this plant is lost like I am, just trying to find a little space in the hardness that surrounds life.

Traveling High

Have you ever had that moment just before a trip where you are listening to the radio and every song is a great song? That is today. The whole 10 minute drive to my parents (bless their hearts, they bring me to the airport A LOT)  I was singing at the top of my lungs to the radio. You want to know why? Because it’s travel day. I am off on another adventure. Even though it is a some what familiar place, a place I have been to twice before, I still get the excited high of travel. There is nothing like the feeling you get when you know you will be in a plane in just a few hours. Even if there is a delay or a mechanical error or if we have to taxi for 30 minutes before taking off, I’ll be the one in a window seat with a shit eating grin on her face. The child behind me can kick my seat all they want, because I am about to go on vaca., and I could care less about them. My mind is on the days to come. 

This adventure is to Juneau, Alaska. Luckily I have family there that; 1. Let me stay at their place (thank you!), and 2. Can tell me what I should see for the touristy places and hole-in-the-wall places. When a person travels, they should seek both. It also really helps when you have someone who knows the area. For instance, what path up the mountain you should take if you want to see bears. I’ll be avoiding that one… They also give you the inside scoop about really, really important things, like you really don’t need to go through the Alaskan Brewery Tour to taste the beer. Like I said, important. 

Trips are all about making memories and sharing then over social media with complete strangers who have no idea who you even are. 😉 

Seriously, trips are about enjoying the time and company you are with. Trips are about learning new things and meeting new people. Most importantly, and when by the ocean, trips are about stuffing your face with more seafood than humanly possible. 

Stuffed Found Traveller 

Spice Up Your Life…

…with a little diversity. Diversity is defined by Google as “the state of being diverse; variety.” This definition can be used if you are talking about taking a walk everyday after work, but one day you feel like being “diverse” and you take a bike ride instead. This is not the “diversity” that I am talking about. My humble opinion the definition on Google for “Diversity” is too broad.  I prefer this definition; Individual differences (e.g., personality, learning styles, and life experiences) and group/social differences (e.g., race/ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, gender expression, country of origin, and ability as well as cultural, political, religions or other affiliations). (AAC&U)

Please, please, please read that definition again. Read it everyday. Memorize it. Eat those words for breakfast.

My hope for you is that you can get out of your shell. Your little home town. Your little perfect world. My hope is that you get out of your comfort zone and realize that the world has so much more to offer. So much more to give. I hope that you learn that there are other people that are different from you, and difference is okay. I hope that you learn from them. I hope that you learn about different religions, different ethnicity or racial groups, and different cultural traditions and beliefs. Take that above definition (the second one), and learn all you can about individual differences and group/social differences.

I promise you (and I don’t promise very often), that it will make you a better member of society. Meeting new people and experiencing new things always opens more windows and doors, than it does closing them. When you experience a new culture there is a rush of excitement. There is a thrill of learning something new about a society that you have never even thought about before.  Maybe, just maybe, those experiences will change you. I know that they will change you for the better, but you have to be accepting of the differences that people offer you. Those differences are what makes the world a better place.

How boring would life be if everyone was just like you? Maybe you wake up, get ready to work an 8-5 shift, come home, make dinner and watch The Big Bang Theory before falling asleep. Then you wake up the next day just to do it all over again. You interact with the same people everyday and have the same experiences. You shop at the same stores and eat the same food. Day in and day out. Everyday is mundane and ordinary.

This is a huge reason with I get high when I travel. Not high as in smoking something or whatever other way of getting high there is, but an emotional high. The one you can only get when you separate your self from what you know. When you crawl out of the hole you live in and experience the world around you there is an intense high of emotions. You feel nervous because you are going into unknown territory. You feel excited because you are taking a vacation or trip that should change your outlook on life, even just a little. You feel a sense of peace, because once you get on that plane, or in your car, or whatever mode of transportation you are using, you start to realize that there are other places that are peaceful aside from your hole you live in.

There is so much more world to see then what is around you. Travel as much as you can. See as much as you are able to see. Talk to the locals. Join in the cultural traditions and events. Immerse yourself in diverse situations. Grow as a person. Become a better human being. Simple enough.

If you live in a hole, get out. There is so much more to the world then the mundane, ordinary dirt you surround yourself with.

 

Found Traveller 

 

Picture: Taken by @Lost2FoundTraveller while in Cambodia. Picture is of a Cambodian Woman who makes and sells fair trade goods.

 

Slice of Heaven

I grew up in a small town called The Middle of Nowhere, Minnesota. It took leaving for college and living a couple years in a different state to appreciate where I came from. Some days, when I was away, I wanted nothing more than to go sit on the pier and breathe in the smell of the dead fish on the not-so-clean beach.  As weird as that sounds, smells bring back memories. When I smell fish, typically the dead variety, my mind jumps back to a time when wandering the path by the lake was the way you passed the time. Along with disregarding the “do not jump” signs on the pier, but don’t tell my mom that.

Now, as an adult (whether my mom thinks I am or not), I will take a time out by the lake. Maybe the day was just a shit show and the thing I want to do is go home, eat a tub of ice cream and watch Netflix. Lets be real, I do that more often than I should. So instead of being one of those, “I release stress by exercising.” type people, I take my stress out by sitting at the lake and smelling the dead fish. Okay. I don’t really like that smell, but if you sit in the right spot and the wind is blowing West, you can smell the fresh cut grass and the tulips near by.

That is the little slice of heaven. The little bit of calm before the next stormy day. It is the peace that you get addicted to.  The first time you sit out by yourself and take in the smells and sights you will only last a few minutes. I know. The first time I went to go be with just me, I got out of my car, sat looking at the lake for what seemed like a half hour, and went back to my car. It was only five minutes.

When you are not used to spending time by yourself, that is when you learn you need it the most. It takes time. It takes practice, but so does everything else that is worth it in your life. You practice how to love. You practice how to be patient. You practice how to treat others with respect and kindness. (If you don’t, maybe you should be working on those too.) You should practice how to spend time with yourself.

One thing that I learned about travelling, especially by myself, is that there are lots of times that you are alone. There are a lot of times were you will be sitting there thinking you have been sitting on that hill looking out over the Pacific Ocean for thirty minutes, but it will only be five.  It seems this way because getting to know you, takes time. Learning how to control your thoughts, takes time.  Learning how to block out everything around you and focus on your breathing, takes time. I will confess. I have yet to figure out how to focus on breathing, with out panicking that I am breathing too fast, or too slow, or too shallow, or too quick.  If ya’ll have any secrets to this, feel free to let me in on them.

Now where was I? Oh, Practice. Someday you will get better. You will look back and the initial five minutes that you could stand to be alone with yourself will grow into thirty. Then it will turn into the a whole day and eventually a solo trip.  That solo trip is totally worth it, but I suggest you have the skills of being inside your own head first. Otherwise you may just go mad.

So go take some time for you today. Take some time to learn about you. Get away from people. Get away from your stressors. Take back you love for peace and the area around you. Take back a little part of your that may have slipped away for a moment. Find that slice of heaven. I promise you don’t have to travel too far.

Lost2FoundTraveller

P.S. Oh and I don’t mean go sit on a rock to think, with your phone in your hand. Leave that shit at home.

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