i've been doing a lot of thinking recently... and when i say a lot, i mean A LOT. in fact, WAY too much to write about right here, right now.

i will say this, however:

one of the big things i've been thinking about and trying to wrap my head around is the concept of "what is the responsible thing to do?". i think for years now, i have been "playing it safe" under the guise of "being responsible". that, in itself, seems to me to be irresponsible. i believe, in many cases, following one's dreams and desires is the more responsible thing to do.

a friend said this to me the other day:

"I am a firm believer in the idea that if you work hard, do things for yourself, follow your dreams (no matter how crazy they may seem to others), and make your priority over all other things feeling content with yourself, that all will fall into place. Sometimes it sucks, and patience is a word to loathe, but at the end of the day life is in your hands and dependent on the decisions and risks you are willing to take. Moral of the story (and I am well aware that this sounds cheesy as hell)... if you want to go to Alaska, go to Alaska. If you want to climb in all 50 states, climb in all 50 states. If you want to finish school, finish school. If you want to switch jobs, switch jobs. Its hard, incredibly hard, to break out of the familiar... but the world is huge and every corner of it is worth exploring because you never know what (a job, a person, a moment, a vista...) you might find."

--ep

does this seem like a re-hash of theme of previous posts, or is it a theme that is emerging...? in any case, i might have to investigate this further and write more about it, because i do not think i am the only one plagued by this type of situation and dilemma.

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*edit*

yeah, i should also mention that i am going to be laying down a big chunk of change this year to get my Wilderness First Responder certification (a step up from Wilderness First Aid) and i also am going to be applying to work as a fisherman in Alaska for NEXT summer and i will be saving up a huge amount of money between now and then so i can be sure that if i am hired i can go...

spr episode 30: a new goal

Please forgive the horribly inept Star Wars reference that is the title of this post.

As I was cruising around on facebook this evening--as I normally do--trolling the internet for cheap amusement and a farce of a muse, I inadvertently set a goal for myself that I believe I will hold myself to:

Between now and my 40th birthday, I will rock climb, boulder, or ice climb in all 50 states.

If you do the math, that averages out to be 5 states a year (the last time i checked, anyhow).

This means that 1) I need to travel more, 2) I need to plan for travel more, 3) I need to find people that might be willing to help me out on this endeavour.

Now to some, this may seem like no big deal. And it isn't. Except that in the first 30 years of my life, I have been in less than half of the states, and most of those were when I was just driving though.

I obviously don't get out much.

This year I hope to knock out Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Washington (God willing...), Indiana (maybe), and of course, Pennsylvania. I can easily do 4 of those, but I am setting my sights high and going for a few more.

I think I might go to the store, get some poster board, draw an artistic interpretation of the general shape of the country with the state borders (or coerce an artistic friend to do it for me) and use that as my checklist... I might even use some gold stars or stickers or something.




Dang, now I'm excited.