Comments | l_stboy: Living Out Loud: Tempting Fate

l_stboy

Living Out Loud: Tempting Fate

Mar 06, 2011 01:53

This is inspired by geniealisa's Living Out Loud project. I've been meaning to write a bit more, and I really enjoy reading the works her prompts inspire.

Have you ever looked back and realized how close you came to not getting where you are now?In a proper world, where I listened to the wisdom of my elders and paid less attention to the pressure of my ( Read more... )

Comments 5

l_stboy March 8 2011, 02:19:50 UTC

I've posted some excerpts from my travel journal to LJ over the years, if you're curious what it looked like at the time. I'll try to find a few and add them here, but here's one from just a little bit south of Paris:

http://l-stboy.livejournal.com/65295.html

(I was trying to teach myself to draw as we went. Clearly, I had a long way to go)

burny_md March 8 2011, 05:58:12 UTC

I do love hearing about your travels and all, and I always learn a little new, and one other thing that never fails to make an appearance in my thoughts... I wonder how you're still alive and kicking. ;)

examorata March 8 2011, 23:36:46 UTC

What a fantastic story! Precisely the thing I never had the gumption to do, though my daydreams tended more towards the "throw everything I've got in the car and go see the rest of this big damn country" end of things than travel abroad. But still: amazing. Thanks for sharing it!

I agree about gap years. My nephew almost took one and I thought that would be just the best thing. There is too much pressure to go about things only in certain ways. Gap years can open up whole new worlds and ways of seeing.

(By the way, since I'm a complete stranger, I'll note I came here from Genie's project too. I'm Jen, and actually managed my own entry this month.)

l_stboy March 10 2011, 08:45:31 UTC

Hi Jen! I did enjoy your story this month. It's kind of an awesome topic.

I'm a huge, huge fan of road trips. I'd totally support getting one of those big road atlases from the supermarket and start daydreaming over the blue highways. And then, you know, hitting the road at the first reasonable opportunity.

The thing about the gap year, at least from talking to people who did it, is that it's the first long stretch of unstructured time you've probably had since you were 2. It can give you time to think about what you want of yourself, if you haven't formed any strong opinions on the matter. Or time to reconsider, refocus... I wish that were more of a tradition in the U.S.

examorata March 10 2011, 10:40:16 UTC

It is a great topic! Though I enjoy them every month.

Actually, next year for my 40th birthday, I'm planning a big solo cross-country road trip. The thing I've wanted to do since I was first able to daydream about driving. Of course I'm only taking about 2-3 weeks, and what I would love to do is take 2-3 months, but ah well. It beats nothin'!

Right, unstructured time is incredibly important. Away from all the crushing weight of expectations that people (your parents, friends, teachers, whomever) have been piling on you since kindergarten. I think those expectations are even heavier now, but my parents didn't pressure me a lot about college or much of anything, really.