As I mentioned before, this past year I was determined to travel as much as possible. I didn’t have a plan (that I knew of) , I didn’t know where I wanted to go, all I knew was that I was going to go places I wasn’t able to go for the previous four and a half years. I don’t believe in regrets because they’re just a complete waste of time, but I will say being in a long-distance relationship tends to limit your traveling experiences. For three of our four years together I spent all of my vacations visiting That One Boy and can honestly say I didn’t mind at all. It wasn’t until he decided to ruin everything that I realized he wasn’t worth missing out on the one thing I’ve wanted to do since I was a little girl. I used to dream about traveling the world when I was younger; it started when I realized Belle (from “Beauty and The Beast”) didn’t live in Florida . I needed to know exactly where she lived ( Province , France ) and I needed to go there. Unfortunately for me, I haven’t made it to Province yet but when I do I will pretend I’m a Disney Princess and spend my days singing through the streets of a random village where all of the villagers will hang out of their windows and sing back to me. Let’s hope they don’t practice the art of baker acting in France . Okay, back to reality. I decided to start my year of adventure as soon as possible; thus, leaving for Nashville on January 5, 2010. It’s not as random as you probably think. I have family in Nashville and a cousin that happens to be one of my best friends. I spent six days visiting my family, meeting my cousin’s (now fiancé), spending time with my other cousin’s sons and driving my grandmother’s car into a ditch. Let’s do the math; being raised in Florida + NEVER being taught how to drive in the snow = should NOT be allowed to drive on icy roads, especially ones with very sharp curves.
After Nashville , comes London . Yes, this one was VERY random. I bought my ticket four weeks before I left and spent five days in one of the most amazing cities I’ve been to so far! Traveling to another country on your own can be terrifying or it can be liberating. Luckily for me, it was the latter. Walking the streets of this city, meeting some amazing people, and seeing things I had only read about in books was the definition of enchanting. Oh, and I can’t forget about the food. It was phenomenal! I remember one specific moment when I was walking through Westminster Abbey, looking at one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, feeling closer to God then I had felt in a long time, seeing the burial places of some of the most influential people in history and thinking about how I wouldn’t have been standing in that moment if That One Boy had never broken my heart. I remember thinking about how thankful I was that he did, and how I would have done it all over again if it meant I could live in that moment forever.
Three weeks after my return from London I took off on a ten hour road trip with my Aunt and little cousin to Virginia . We visited Colonial Williamsburg, saw some breathtaking plantation houses and spent twenty-four hours being treated like VIP in Washington DC . When they say “it’s all about who you know” they aren’t kidding. Knowing people is how we got to walk through the gates of the white house, into the briefing room and how our names will forever be among the likes of Mariah Carey, Nick Cannon, JFK, Jackie Kennedy, Obama, Michelle Obama, and hundreds more. D.C was by far my favorite part of the entire trip, and I find the city pulls at the heart strings every time I think of it.
After the family vacation I spent the next few months finishing up some needed classes, and working to make up for the (rather large) amount of money I had spent in the previous months. By the time November came along I was ready for some more family time, Indianapolis being my point of interest. My little cousin enlisted in the Marine Corps in early 2010 and was scheduled to leave for basic training in the first few days of January 2011. I decided it was important to head up there to a. see him before he left, and b. see every other member of his family that I hadn’t seen in a while, which also included meeting three of my adorable little cousins. I spent about five days with them and was sad to leave, but ready to get back home and start planning for NewYork City . Being that I wrote an entire blog on my new favorite city, I won’t spend any time on it except to say it was magical.
The moral of my entire gypsy soul story is to say that if my heart hadn’t been broken, if I were still being held back by the restraints of dating That One Boy, I would have NEVER had the opportunities that 2010 brought to my life. He wasn’t worth missing out on these marvelous places, and he definitely wasn’t worth what they ended up teaching me about myself. Changes in life can be hard, they can make you feel like nothing will ever be the same, and while that may be true, I promise they will only be better. Don’t ever let anyone define the person that you are, and more importantly, don’t allow them to hold you back from your dreams that will inevitably create the person you’re going to become.
“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.”
-Lao Tzu
“It is always the same. Once you are liberated, you are forced to ask who you are.”
-Jean Baudrillard
“We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the life that is waiting for us.”
-Joseph Campbell
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