How Did I Miss This?
This week was tough. Not in any dramatic or stressful way, but I was just EXHAUSTED every day, in the way that you have to force yourself to stay up until 830 pm instead of falling into the bed at 6 after dinner ( Am I the only one that does that?) And of course the reason to do that is so that I don’t wake up at midnight bright eyed and bushy tailed when I should be in slumber land.
The reason for the exhaustion was a good portion allergies ( along with everyone else it seems), a smidge from the cooler, gray, rainy weather, and a whole lot from traveling around for work. I’m super excited that I have the opportunity to go far and afield for my job, but I am definitely looking forward to the long Columbus Day weekend coming up.
In terms of traveling, I caught the bug fairly early in life- my brother and I were incredibly fortunate that every summer vacation we would go stay wherever my aunt Cindy was living (Texas, Utah, California) and go on various road trips to national parks, museums, and whatever else we could find along the way. We went on a few road trips to Canada to see my mom’s family, cruises and vacations to the Bahamas, Mexico, and Caribbean. With all this travel, I did not get my passport until I was in grad school and my first big trip abroad was in January 2007 to London.
If I came into a winfall of cash, travel would definitely be on top of my list of things to do. I love exploring new places with map in hand, walking through a city to find great spots to eat or have coffee, meet locals, and of course, see awesome museums and history sites.
It’s a funny thing about travel. My whole life I’ve wanted to be this crazy world explorer, a gypsy as my Grandma would say. I have never backpacked around the world or taken a month off from adult life to explore- I deeply admire the people who do that. Because of that, I’ve frequently complained that I don’t get to travel enough- which, I see now, is far from the truth. Just in 2012 alone, I’ve traveled via road trip or air around the United States-either for work or personal ( much thanks to my guy) every single month of this year. So while I may not be spending one week in Croatia ( a dream for me!) and the next in Morocco, I am slowly fulfilling my dream of being a frequent traveler.
This whole thing of not realizing I have the things I have dreamed of is, I am seeing, a very bad habit of mine. In the past few years- especially in this past year of change, I have spent so much time focusing on getting through each day and over each bump in the road, that I completely missed where I was in the big picture. It’s really easy to look for the small things in life to be grateful for each day- quiet sunny mornings, hot coffee, or a great hair day- but in my search to be happy with the simple pleasures of life, I’ve completely missed that I was achieving, slowly, in my own way, one of my dreams.
Life By Kristen 