2013: A Life Odyssey

"Best Laid Plans"

If I could frame my last few years in a picture, it would be a young adult slogging through a thick, waist-deep mire plagued by a cloud of mosquitoes; various useful items sinking into the mud from a half-zipped backpack; an expression of suppressed terror for whatever carnivorous creatures lurked in the depths. I would title the picture "Best Laid Plans."

I had them. Oh, how I had them. I'd hire the best construction workers, purchase the sturdiest materials and build a bridge to cross the--I don't have the budget? Okay, Plan B, weave a rope bridge from one bank to the...no anchor points. All right, Plan C, fill the bog with sand until its solid enough to...not enough resources. Right. I'm walking through it then. And while I made progress, each arduous step was a fight with the added bonus of mud flooding my pants and shoes. But I slogged on because it had to get easier at some point--just keep blindly pushing through it and hope for the marsh to thin, the bed to rise, the other shore to appear. I went on like this for years.

And one day I stopped, frustrated. Why was I here? Where was I going? Why did I choose to enter this cesspool? What was so important about the other shore? And while I stood sinking, the morning sun beating on my head, I came to a dehydrated enlightenment. All this hoping was getting me nowhere. All my wishing for the environment to adapt to me was infantile and wholly beyond my capacity to change. But I could change. I could adapt. I chose to come here but I would choose to move beyond.

So as 2013 rolled around, I resolved to make it my year. It answered.

And this is the part I don't think I can put into words, but, this year has conspired to restore my teeth and claws, my fire, my ambition. The old "Just try and stop me" adage returned like a punch to the stomach--other people's stomachs. I set goals at the beginning of the year and have fiercely pursued them. Everything from work to exercise to recreation to novel writing went with clear end goals on a list and I twisted and kicked and snarled to free myself from the mire I'd trapped myself in to reach them. I would make progress on my own terms. I would seize the reins and steer my course, surmount obstacles or bend to pass through them. This year was mine.

And 2013 has answered as I threw myself out there with reckless abandon. Suddenly, all my part-time jobs were trying to schedule over each other, I received an offer to teach ESL, I received an offer to tutor, and I accepted them all. Nose to the grindstone, no holds barred, accepting all opportunities in triple threat offense. The big hitters were crowding back into my corner again. Accomplishment. Satisfaction. Adaptation. Success.

A restored ambition coupled with my acute wanderlust and I decided this would be the year I tackled Europe. I'm still young, I have no commitments, I could get travel under the youth discount. Now is the time.

But as Murphy dictates, the best laid plans got squashed by means beyond my control. And where I would normally have thrown up my hands with a disdainful "SCREW IT! I didn't really want to see Paris's hot nightlife, Italy's summer art festivals, or those gorgeous, dramatic Alps anyway!!" I rebounded before disappointment could even set in, spun a full one-eighty, and set my sights in the opposite direction.

Australia.

Never been. Always wanted to go. In position to do so. I'd have to go solo. Hmm.
"Fine." My teeth gnashed.
"No problem." The fire burned.
"Let's do it." Ambition urged.
That time spent baking in the sun might have sapped a touch of my sanity, but that reckless abandon hasn't dissipated a bit since it seized me in its jaws last December. I'm going. And I'm going to record it here. Just try and stop me.

I hope you'll join me on a trip that will check off a lot of firsts for me--there will doubtless be a lot of hilarious bungles, insightful musings, and educational moments as wont to happen in any journey to Oz.