Let's Be Adventurers, Darling

This is going to be a slight tangent, but relevant nonetheless.

 

Travel is a big passion of mine and of a lot of people.

When I was younger I thought I would move away for college and never return, and then I went to school locally and studied abroad. It was wonderful, but it shifted my focus. I was so homesick. Appalachia is a very different environment to grow up in. We truly have been preserved by our mountains. When I say there is not a single Trader Joe’s or H&M in this entire state, would you believe me? Because it’s true. We aren’t overly commercialized. (Obviously good and bad to that, lots perceive this as "backward") We hold the door for strangers, and when someone holds the door for you, you say thank you. There isn’t “much to do”. I HATED IT HERE growing up. As I got older, as I went away more often, I realized… there is TRULY no place like HOME. Like my home. Like the rolling hills and the high mountaintops of Almost Heaven, West Virginia. I planted my roots and bought a home 10 minutes (we calculate distance in time here) from where I grew up. I’m one of THOSE people now. Do I still want to move? Yes. I do plan on moving once I have equity in this home and become more professionally and financially stable (SOUTH by the way, no more snow, please) But it was important to me to find my roots before I found my wings.

 

However, I am now able to take trips on the weekends. I am old enough to appreciate that there ARE things to do, I just have to search for them.

 

One of my great passions is travel. We have squared that away. But frequent travel just isn’t an option for my budget. Or is it? Do I need to go far? Aren’t there plenty of things that I take for granted all around me?

 

If I take nothing else away from my PASSION month, I want it to be to grow my passion for my immediate surroundings. To explore my state more. To adventure in my home state.

Yes, life is short. If you are truly unhappy where you are (location/career/relationship) you should make moves to change that. HOWEVER, make sure it is your situation that is what is making you unhappy and not YOU making you unhappy. Ouch, that's a bit harsh, Kaitlyn. But am I right or am I right? I want to learn to bloom right where I am planted. I want to see every silver lining, I want to cherish every day for the gift it is. I want to travel my own backyard and turn my spirit into the adventure, not the going. In essence, yes, I am changing my glasses to a rose golden hue. In my world it will officially be sunny and 75 every day because life is just too damn short.

XOXOX