I've been trying to find how I became this person. This person who travels around the world (dare say in a recession). And I think I've finally started to put my finger on it.
It begins with me being a negative Nancy. Yes, I had a good job, great friends, and later an awesome boyfriend but the problem was I was no longer being true to myself. I was comfortable but not content. One of my life goals is to be happy....and while I enjoyed my life I had lost something. I no longer was striving for some unknown. The world started to become too small. I know that when I am comfortable I will stay in that place for a looonnnggg time, maybe forever if something or someone does not push me. Unknowningly I was begining to be complacent. I was happy with my life just the way it was...which would be fine other than the fact that I started to feel old.
For someone that was just past their mid 20's I should not feel old. I should not look at my life as though it was predestined. Now I'm not sure when I made a decision to do what I always had wanted to do but hadn't done but it happened. I wanted to live abroad for one year. Since I happened to have a good job I also wanted to spend that one year not working. This was crazy...living abroad and not working? Who was this person who had kidnapped the practical, responsible Carissa and what were her motives?!
The answer was easy...I was doing the things I had always been too scared to do. I saw all of these things as items I would do once I had been a productive adult and retired. Life showed me that I might not have the opportunity to retire. That maybe tomorrow would be my last day. Now I wouldn't be ashamed of my life but could I honestly say that I had lived life to the fullest? Could I say that I hadn't let fear stop me from doing what I loved? No, I wouldn't have been able to honestly say yes to those questions. So planning began and as planning began a little spark ignited. This spark said that because of the amount of money I could save I wouldn't be able to go without working. Solution? Cycle tour?! Yes, this was my process. I knew sometime in the future I would like to try cycle touring so why not make it a year long beginner tour?
And that is how I took that step from committed cyclist to crazy cycle tourist. Budget. I'm so glad that I was silly enough to decide that it would be a great thing to go cycle around a country on my own. Even with my accidents (or maybe because of them) I feel truly lucky that I have been able to accomplish some of my life goals. I would have never believed that I would have done the things I've done just 3 years ago. These goals were not even on my radar of options. Which reminded me that you are the only thing that limits what you can accomplish. I'm not saying things won't be difficult, frustrating, stressful, or scary but that they can be done.
I wish a younger version of me would have realized the things that I could complete. I've met some amazing people who are blessed to have realized this incredibly early in their lives and it makes me so happy to see. Also, incredibly jealous.
So think about that one thing you've always wanted to do. Be it reading 5000 books or swimming in the Artic and start the path towards it. Maybe it's making the list of books, or buying pictures of polar bears. Do that tiny first step in the right direction because you're not going to regret it.
It begins with me being a negative Nancy. Yes, I had a good job, great friends, and later an awesome boyfriend but the problem was I was no longer being true to myself. I was comfortable but not content. One of my life goals is to be happy....and while I enjoyed my life I had lost something. I no longer was striving for some unknown. The world started to become too small. I know that when I am comfortable I will stay in that place for a looonnnggg time, maybe forever if something or someone does not push me. Unknowningly I was begining to be complacent. I was happy with my life just the way it was...which would be fine other than the fact that I started to feel old.
For someone that was just past their mid 20's I should not feel old. I should not look at my life as though it was predestined. Now I'm not sure when I made a decision to do what I always had wanted to do but hadn't done but it happened. I wanted to live abroad for one year. Since I happened to have a good job I also wanted to spend that one year not working. This was crazy...living abroad and not working? Who was this person who had kidnapped the practical, responsible Carissa and what were her motives?!
The answer was easy...I was doing the things I had always been too scared to do. I saw all of these things as items I would do once I had been a productive adult and retired. Life showed me that I might not have the opportunity to retire. That maybe tomorrow would be my last day. Now I wouldn't be ashamed of my life but could I honestly say that I had lived life to the fullest? Could I say that I hadn't let fear stop me from doing what I loved? No, I wouldn't have been able to honestly say yes to those questions. So planning began and as planning began a little spark ignited. This spark said that because of the amount of money I could save I wouldn't be able to go without working. Solution? Cycle tour?! Yes, this was my process. I knew sometime in the future I would like to try cycle touring so why not make it a year long beginner tour?
And that is how I took that step from committed cyclist to crazy cycle tourist. Budget. I'm so glad that I was silly enough to decide that it would be a great thing to go cycle around a country on my own. Even with my accidents (or maybe because of them) I feel truly lucky that I have been able to accomplish some of my life goals. I would have never believed that I would have done the things I've done just 3 years ago. These goals were not even on my radar of options. Which reminded me that you are the only thing that limits what you can accomplish. I'm not saying things won't be difficult, frustrating, stressful, or scary but that they can be done.
I wish a younger version of me would have realized the things that I could complete. I've met some amazing people who are blessed to have realized this incredibly early in their lives and it makes me so happy to see. Also, incredibly jealous.
So think about that one thing you've always wanted to do. Be it reading 5000 books or swimming in the Artic and start the path towards it. Maybe it's making the list of books, or buying pictures of polar bears. Do that tiny first step in the right direction because you're not going to regret it.
