krista@Travelintoxication.comTime is a wonderful, horrible and uncontrollable thing.
When I was young, ok wait, let’s start that sentence again. Ever since I have been alive I have been a night owl. I love to stay up really really late, and then sleep until at least noon. If I could make my own hours at work they would be noon to 10, Monday thru Thursday. When I begin my traveling I will definitely keep those hours and it will be glorious.
During high school my alarm would go off very early in the morning and as I repeatedly hit snooze I used think, “I wish I could stop time so I could sleep in. Like that Twilight Zone episode where they pushed pause on the world.”
My senior year was my brothers freshman year. I had gone to summer school after my junior year so I could get late arrival my senior year. My brother wanted me to drive him to school everyday. And I love my younger brother, so I agreed to drive him. We were always late to school, but again, I always drove him. He would get up early, shower, eat breakfast and then go out and start my truck to warm it up then come inside to get me. I of course was still asleep in bed. You know, like that horrible teenager I was. I would eventually get up, put my hair up, get dressed and then drop him off at school. Then I’d go pick up my best friend and we would go to breakfast. As we were eating we would decide if we wanted to go back to school that day, or skip school. I’m so surprised we even graduated.
After high school it seemed like forever before I turned 21. Eventually I did, and my birthday happened to be on a Friday, and yes…that night…to the bars we went! I looked 16, but I had my ID to prove I was really legally able to drink in a bar. I spent the better part of my 20’s in various bars around the county. I had a lot of fun and met lots of pretty cool people. Then I became pregnant and all that bar hopping stopped for me…for at least a year anyway.
Once my son came into the world he was all that was important to me. As it should be. I still remember the 26 1/2 hours of labor I went thru to get him into this world. It was brutal and I would do it all over again. That seems like it happened last year…fast forward and he’s now 18, and almost graduating from high school
What the hell happened to the time? How the hell did I get to be 45 years old?
Before both of my grandma’s died they both told me that inside their minds they still felt like they were 25, but when they looked into a mirror they realized they were old. I don’t feel like that yet, but I know it’s probably going to be coming very quickly for me.
This is why I am leaving while I’m still sort of young instead of waiting until I retire at age 122; the age I will be able to collect social security and get on medicare. Yes I’m exaggerating, but I remember when you could retire at 55 so anything over that seems crazy.
And now I have ran into a bit of a road block with my plan. I had originally scheduled to leave on September 6th…of 2016. That’s only 152 days from now. Then I told my son I would wait until the end of 2016 to make sure he’s settled into college before I left. Now, since his broken leg experience he’s wanting me to stay thru his first year of college. He says he wants me to be happy…but he doesn’t want me to leave just yet. So I’ll be making him, my family, friends, the groups I volunteer for, work and cats very happy by being here for another year. But now I need to figure out a new plan. I need to keep my focus and work on a new timeline of when I will be leaving this county. I can’t lose sight of what my dreams are and what I feel I have to do. I can’t have any more regret in this life.
If I’m being honest, I would love to be traveling right now…not a care in the world. But things happen how they are supposed to. And the idea of having a little more time to plan and to develop my writing is amazing.
This new plan will be fun to create! I can actually decide what I want to drive off into the sunset with, whether it’s a new car, the durang’, or either of those things with a trailer attached. Or maybe I will decide to buy a motorhome. The possibilities are endless.
I’ve ordered some books for my trip as well. It’s fun to look at maps and read books that help you to plan a road trip! I can take my time to go thru those books and to plan out where to go and when. When the sun decides to come out I can sit out in my back yard (aka my own private beer garden…where shoes are optional and you never get cut off), on my lounge chair and research places I want to see!
And most importantly, I can work on…my writing. I can continue to write for this blog, I can write more episodes of my sitcom, I can submit some of my writing into contests, and most importantly I will be able to work on getting a paid writing job setup before I start to travel.
So you see, time seems to really be slippin’ into the future…but now I get to have the fun of picking a new leave date. Hmmm…what date will it be???
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