Plans are the lifeblood of dreams; they are what keep our hopes and future ideals alive. We make plans to give our lives direction and to give ourselves a purpose. With plans, we have goals to work toward and future events to look forward to. Not everything in life should be planned, of course; there always needs to be room for spontaneity and adventure. However, it is nice to have an outline to guide your journeys.
Plans are a large part of my life right now; I will be traveling or away from home for about 13 weeks this summer, and I couldn’t be more excited about it. I will be traveling all around Europe, from Germany to Italy to Ireland and to wherever else the road takes me. I will be able to experience so many different countries, cultures, people, beer, and food along the way. I will be living within the outlines of a plan but also with a sense of spontaneity in my every day travels; there are so many experiences that will just happen organically, but they would never happen if I hadn’t planned to put myself in that situation. As much as planning may seem laborious and full of future commitments, it is a beautiful way to reward yourself and to open up the doors for adventure.
Before traveling abroad, I will be taking a 15 day trip up and down the East coast, seeing cities as far north as Bristol, Rhode Island and as far south as Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The trip is planned but it was very spontaneous; one might even call it a leap of faith. This trip seems crazy and has from the the word go, but I have never been so excited for 15 consecutive days in my life. To me, that’s all that matters. Some things in life don’t have to make sense to everyone else, they don’t need to be justified. You just know you want and you chase it with everything you have. It’s really that simple sometimes. (Rin we are totally psychotic, aren’t we?)
Adventure awaits and I for one am not going to pass it up. Life is full of risks, and I’m willing to take a leap of faith that I think will ultimately make me happy. I don’t want to live a life wishing I would have seized opportunities that seemed too risky or crazy at the time. I want to look back and only regret the actions I took, not the opportunities I was too scared to take. Ideally I would like to regret nothing at all, but nobody is perfect and I would rather find out firsthand where a path will take me rather than spend my whole life wondering.
I took this picture while standing on the Rock of Gibraltar with my monkey buddy viewing three countries and two different continents from one spot. (Morocco, Spain, and England, and Europe and Africa. Duh.) The only reason this was possible was because I booked a trip seven months out on a bit of whim and it ended up being one of the best experiences of my life.
Plan a trip, no matter how big or small, and no matter how far in the future it is, you will not regret it!
Spinning Atlas 