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Thursday, April 9, 2015

It's beginning

I'm leaving New York in exactly two months.

It's a little surreal because I've talked about taking time off to travel since the second I graduated college. And every year since.  But I would get so caught up in life, and my career, and friends, and events, and week-long vacations max, not to mention the looming fear of not-earning-an-income-and-therefore-screwing-up-the-rest-of-my-life-and-then-becoming-homeless-and-poor-and-miserable-forever.  I always told myself that I was looking for the right time, and I told people I was just waiting for that extra push or some kind of sign from the universe.  Well, not only has the universe sent me like a million signs, but I've come to realize there is no "right time" and probably never will be.  And nobody's getting any younger here. Except for me. In my interests.

I was hemming and hawing over the past couple weeks about what to do, while also casually looking at $3,000/month window-less studios that I was appalled anyone would want/pay for (but were being snatched off the market so fast that sometimes they'd be taken before I even had a chance to visit).  On that side note, WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE, because I want to ask you what you do and where I went wrong in life.  Add to the list "people who are at the mall on a weekday" and "people who can attend the 5PM weekday fitness classes at Crunch".

And as I was debating whether I should 1.) Stay here and continue to push ahead in my earnings potential and live in an exorbitantly-priced box or 2.) Move somewhere else and push ahead in my earnings potential and live in an more-moderately-but-still-exorbitantly-priced box, or, 3.) Go travel; my super-wise friend Libby told me "You never know what will be the right decision in life. But you pick one, and you just do it. Just do something in one direction, and everything else will follow. You can always change your mind after the fact, but you will drive yourself crazy wondering about all the ifs, ands, or buts beforehand."

So I did. I stopped looking for a new apartment. I started packing things in boxes. I casually mentioned the idea to anyone who would listen to try it out and see how it sounded. I bought myself my very first Mac to start my blogging adventures (which I couldn't, and still can't, figure out how to use very well.......I think my first question to the people in the Apple Store was how to get on the internet).  I wrote dozens of lists; lists about countries I wanted to visit, plans I had already made, things I would have to buy, errands to run, people I would invite to join if they wanted, etc. I bought this ridic domain name (props to Sam for making me do it).

And then I bought a one-way ticket to Scotland. (And then consequently called my mom every day panicking.)

So here we go. And the countdown begins!