Wanderlust Wishlist

I want to go into the world untethered, unhooked from reality and at the same time hooked in by the realities unknown to me.  I have my wish list of places that I would like to see, and many of them have no names because I want to wander the earth and discover the cities that are so small you have to super zoom into a map to find them.  I want to attend festivals that have been held in towns and villages for years and dance down the streets with the locals.  I want to see temples that were abandoned centuries ago and soak up the peace and tranquility that still lives there.  I know that realistically I can not see all the places I wish to see, that's why its called a wish list!  I know that I have to be certain places at certain times in order to meet up with family and friends that come to visit on my journey, and I will.  In the meantime, to attempt to provide a basis of where I want to go, here is my wish list map:

The wanderlust factors

In making this decision to take this trip, it has me thinking about the push-pull factors that keep us from, or send us on life's adventures.  While there are a lot of things responsible for this trip, and I plan to delve in to plenty of them over the next few months, I think for me the first factor is my parents.  I was raised in a small town, and was fairly sheltered as a result.  But my parents were wonderful in reducing that shelter as much as possible!  Because of my parents eclectic taste in music I love Placido Domingo as much (well, maybe not AS much) as I love Tom Petty, Talking Heads and AC/DC, Temptations and the Rolling Stones, etc, etc.  My parents provided me with variety, not just in music but I think music is a great gauge of how open someone is...to new ideas, to various perspectives, to life.  My parents also encouraged me to learn about anything I was interested in, any place, any event, and there is no doubt in my mind that learning about the world increased my desire to see it!  My dad and I used to play what is still one of my favorite games, "What would you do if you won the lotto" and my answers always revolved around traveling.  I was admittedly really nervous about telling my parents about my plan, I wasn't sure how they would react.  I mean I am my dad's littlest girl and I'm still my mom's next to littlest girl, with no real definitive plan, by myself...going into the great wide open.  They have both been so understanding and supportive of my plan, they have places to meet me picked out, they have words of advice, of warning, and most of all of love. Thanks you guys, for giving me the dream and the bravery to (finally!) follow it.

The plan and its precursors

For years now I have been half jokingly talking about running away from home.  Never when I was a child did I want to run away from home, it is a recent development that came about sometime in my 20s.  This plan has been disregarded a number of times, because I was in school, because I was working, because I had a car payment, because because because.  This started to feel a bit like be-excuse be-excuse be-excuse....but it also seemed like the way life goes.  I have tried to do life like you are supposed to, I went to school, I worked while I was there, I got my BA and then my MA because that's what you do right?  You go to college to get a good job.  I have tried that plan....that plan led to my new "Grand Adventure" plan!!   After having my heart broken by dream job after dream job after dream job I finally had the ultimate heartbreak.  A job working for a historical architecture organization, writing for them to be more exact, a dream job for a History major who worked in architecture for three years before getting her Master's!!!  Alas, I did not get a chance to interview for the position for the same reason I hadn't interviewed for or gotten all the other dream jobs....I didn't have the correct, or enough relevant, work experience.  You could call this the straw on my back, I broke and I have never been so pleased to have broke!!!  I have decided that if I do not have the correct work experience to get the jobs I want, I will go get the LIFE experience I want instead.  My projected departure date will be the end of May, beginning of June for Europe.  From there I plan to take a year to keep working my way east until I get west again, hitting 6 of the 7 continents, working here and there along the way, volunteering with some really neat organizations, talking politics and art with locals, being a silent observer, and reading Vonnegut (amongst others but always Vonnegut) on the trains of the world.  I'll be using this blog once I am on the road and I have a few uses in mind during the lead up.  If anyone has any suggestions for places that I HAVE to see, send them to me please this site will be where I do a lot of my planning and weighing out options (and if you want to meet me somewhere, lets get that planned!).  Later on I will be posting some of the volunteer projects that  I plan on taking part in.  I will also be using the site to auction off some art work donated by my wonderful and talented artist friends to help me build my travel fund.  Stay tuned...the adventure is just beginning!