The Purple Pack

For Halloween 2010 I dressed up as Dora the Explorer.

I made a quick run to Wal-Mart and purchased a purple backpack for $5, and I haven't parted with it since.

It is deceivingly big and can comfortably hold everything I need for a 5 day trip. It fits my life so perfectly I have used it as a purse, as a school bag and my permanent travel companion. It has been with me to New York, DC, Florida, Colorado, Texas, California, Illinois and all of the UK.

The Purple Pack in Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh, Scotland. 

It has developed a personality of its own, I like to think that it has changed as much as I have with  the things it's seen and experienced. The pins and doodles are each scars and stories of each new place. I have been keeping journals since I was in 5th grade and I like to have a notebook specific for each trip. (Post about it to come later). But this backpack is a collection of all the stories, it is sort of a friend who was there with me through every trip.

I could get a newer, better one. With more space and better design with comfortable straps. But I don't want it. Just like my old beat up Converse, it has been with me everywhere, it was there when I stopped making excuses for staying put ("not enough money, not old enough, don't know anybody, still in school" you've heard them all) and I like to think that Dora's spirit did dawn on me with this backpack and I finally started exploring.

It became a sort of running joke with my friend Carmela, when she followed my lead and dressed up as Dora in 2011, acquiring for herself a purple pack of her own. Amongst many things, we share the love of travel, and now a recent graduate, I hope she gets a bit of the explorer spirit herself.

M.

The joys of planning.

For somebody who loves being spontaneous and care-free I have the habit of planning way too much. I guess what I like most about it is actually getting the chance to fulfill my plans and than just throw them out the window. For example, I recently went to the UK for three weeks and I was so excited I didn't know what to do with myself. I spent my last few days at work looking over travel guides just to pass the time, and I had a huge list of things I wanted to see and do. I didn't do a single one of those. I actually wrote down a physical list that was with me all the time while I was in the UK and although I looked at it frequently, I didn't tick off a single box. And it was amazing. Now that I have some free time before my next adventure I can't help but wanting to plan more things. In 2015 I will go on a round the world trip for year to celebrate getting my master's, even though after getting a master's I'll definitely not have enough money to go to the park, let alone around the world. But I'm planning for it, and it's gonna be grand. What are some big plans you guys loved actively ignoring? M. p.s. my new shirt came in and I love it. Even more bc it matches my blog backgroun.

I'm a Dandelion!

   Sometimes people give these amazing talks that just click so deeply inside that I feel obliged to blog about it. And sometimes it makes me want to do even more than that.

   I admire people who have the guts to try out things, that have an idea and stick to it, whether it seems likely to work out or not. I also like to pretend I am one of those people, I just haven't had my big idea yet, but when I do I'm not gonna let the world tell me no.
   Well, that's right, I won't let the world tell me no, because I'll already have done that for myself. It doesn't have to be a big idea, hell it doesn't even have to be a good one. I am great at not doing things, not because I think they won't work out, or they'll back fire, but because I think they won't matter. But I need to be ok with that.
  I am still surprised I've stuck with this blog for as long as I have, seeing that it is not immensely popular, and it sure doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, but I love it and I'm glad I spread this little seed. And that's what I want to talk about, the awesomeness of trying things. Neil Gaiman is one of the people I most admire and he gave this amazing talk at the 2013 London Book Fair about the future of publishing. It's awesome and I encourage anybody to make time to watch it.

   
I've read and loved the Calendar of Tales,  and when the art part came around I actually wanted to make something for it, but didn't because I'm not really artistic and this and that. And so many other excuses I use for so many other things in my life. BUT NO MORE! Because I am a Dandelion! and its about time I've started acting as such.

  I created a folder on my desktop called Projects and I downloaded one of Neil's narrative of my favorite story, because even though video submissions are done, I still want to make one, so I will. I also decided to give another shot at something I had failed quite miserably a couple months ago, in a different town. Those are just two, but I've got plenty more seeds that I've been hoarding for myself in the hopes 1993 comes back, and that has been a waste of some good 22 years.

M.

By Jove, I've got it!

   So last night I met the guy responsible for this little gem.

   Regardless of how you feel about the ad, the representation of women, the sincerity of Dove's actions etc. You can't deny that this is a pretty effective piece of marketing. Therefore the person who came up with this concept was very successful at it. And he's no older than 30, pushing it.

  At the ripe age of 22 I found myself really excited that young people are being recognized in large scales, and then I got down on myself for never even having come close to achieving anything noteworthy. I then went on over all the arguments in my head about not comparing myself to other people etc etc.

   Today I woke up with a spring in my step and the attitude to take on whatever the world threw at me. And by jove, I've got it. My next project! It is going to be a series of odd end jobs, mostly freelance, to help me pay for grad school and the trips I wanna make. But also to build some more than necessary life-experience, and open my eyes a little bit.

  I'm excited about it, and can now stop moping about not knowing where my life is going or not knowing what I want to do for a career.


  How about you, my darlings, what do you want to achieve with a little extra spring in your step?

M.

11 questions every 20 something needs to ask, and my answers.

   One of my favorite blogs, All Groan Up, has these 11 fantastic questions that every 20 something needs to ask themselves, and having woken up with the nagging "what now?" in my head for the last two years I thought it was about time I started asking different questions, since I obviously don't have the answers to that one yet.

Do the people I'm surrounded by bring me life?

   I'm not certain how to answer this. I feel like I surround myself with such a mixture of people that I can't make any generalisation about any of them. But I often find myself giving advice and pushing my friends through rough times, to get them motivated to do things and chase their dreams. So in a way yes, they do bring me life, but I feel like it comes from me when I try to breathe some into them.

Who inspires me the most?

   I guess the people I want to emulate the most are young professionals/entrepreneurs who made a career out of blogging or youtube or something of the sort. Not that I myself want to become a professional blogger, but I admire people who have stuck with things that aren't conventional careers, or the ones that the older generation look at and say "why don't you get a real job?" and I admire them for sticking to it and following their passion.

What are my favorite stories?

   I like crazy stories of things that happen to absolutely ordinary people. If I had to find a common thread between my top favorite movies, it would be that the main plot device is something interesting, or life changing that happens to normal people. The sort of thing that I walk around the street thinking, it could happen to me too.

Would I want to live with me?

   Absolutely. I pride myself in being fun loving and thrill seeking and those are the characteristics I'd look for somebody to live with. It ties back with the previous answer, perfectly normal people who want to live extraordinary lives.

Do I love from my insecurities or do I love from my strengths?

   A little bit of both I'd say, but mostly out of my insecurities.

Where am I ripe with talent and where do I quickly deflate?

   I am argumentative, I am a good listener. I am very empathic and can relate well to other people's feelings. I am spontaneous and courageous when it comes to new things. None of them are real talents though.

What are my favorite hobbies/things I do for fun, and is there something there I can leverage into a career or product?

   No. I like to read, but I'm a terrible writer. I like to listen to music, but I don't sing or dance. I like to be on tumblr but mainly just reblogging things and never creating them. I'm too much of a consumer and not enough of a creator.

What is the main thing that is holding me back?

   Lack of patience. I don't have enough patience to let things develop into what they need to be, I don't wait until things are ripe for the picking so I often either pick them too soon or forget about the completely.

What are my negotiables and non-negotiables?

   I am willing to live anywhere, and I refuse to take a job that will pin me down to just one place. I want to have a job that I can do from anywhere in the world, when a whim strikes to travel and see new things I can do that without having to schedule it months in advance, or wait until I have my days off, etc.

What breaks my heart?

   Being stuck in one place. 

At 29 years and 364 days, if I accomplished just one thing, what do I want it to be?

   To have been to every continent at least once.

What about you guys? Anybody out there struggling with the quarter-life crisis of your twenties? What would be your answers to some of these questions?

M.

On slowing down

   I think I suffer from this generational disorder of speed. Everything has to be done immediately, and if I have to wait for more than a few seconds for something I find myself getting angry. Things, particularly information, can be, and often are, at my disposal the instant I demand them.

   So I have a hard time slowing down. I don’t mean the kind of slow down to appreciate life and walk in the park. I do just fin on those occasions. But I mean the slowing down of dedicating time to doing something. Focusing my attention to a single task that although can be done very quickly through a series of computerized shortcuts should most likely be done slower and more precisely by human hands.

   Even as I write this post, I am compiling a massive amount of data to be sent over to a client, so he can look and approve it before we can produce it. And that is fine, it is better and more efficient to send the files to him digitally, but what my mind is incompetent of doing is just relaxing for a bit while that task finishes. At no point did I think I should just sit here and stare at the screen for the little download bar to fill up. My immediate thought was “I know! I can use this time to blog! I’ve neglected it for a while.” The curse of the multi-tasker. 

   So here I am. Unable to stop, unable to be still. Not doing a thing.

   How about you? Can you take the time to wait for a task to finish before you star another?

M.

Short Term Projects

   I am bad at waiting. If there is something I am looking forward to I can't help but obsess over every single detail paying an indecent amount of attention to it, and some times changing plans entirely just because I had too much time to mull it over. I find myself in one of those situations. I have big big plans that are to come to fruition in about a years time, and now we play the waiting game. Which is torture.

   The solution I came up for this problem is the distraction tactic. While I wait for my long term projet to come about I need to make several short term ones (STPs). Learn a skill, give myself a reading challenge, volunteer, create something, travel. They tend to vary based on the amount of time I need to fill up, otherwise I'll just find myself wasting my life by crossing off days on the calendar, days I could have been using for something else.

   So now its the drawing board for me, I have no idea what this STP will be, but just the prospect of it makes me excited. Any ideas are welcome.

How do you deal with long term anticipation?

M.

p.s. seemingly unrelated song, but I love it and have been listening to it non-stop.