The Journey Begins Here. “Pause for a moment, you wretched weakling, and take stock of yourself,” is a quote that’s written on a wall in my office. I wrote it with a permanent blue marker. It was January 01, 2019, about 1:30 in the morning. Of course, I had been thinking about the coming year.
I placed it strategically: I would have to read it every time I left the room. It’s become habit now, but unlike most habits, it never gets easier, only harder.
My days had become pixilated, tired; from my perspective, it was like looking at a television set through the back end of a telescope; time had become something only to be got through instead of something to experience.
I felt stagnated, submerged to the knees in the morass and mud of every new day, and knew I would continue on in the same vein unless I consciously made an effort to change in some way.
The problem is I’ve allowed myself to slip into the comfort of the familiar. I’ve remained disconnected from people, the world, for too long, that everything around me began to flatten out, lose its shape, and I realized that in order to regain some semblance of connection, in order for me to thoroughly take stock of myself and to once again see things how they really are, I was going to have to step outside my own naïve perspective, rent myself from that illusion of security, and forget about my long list of low-rent tragedies.
I decided the best ticket to self-rejuvenation was going to be something I’ve done very little of: travel abroad.
Now I just need to decide where to go, which, I am finding out, is more difficult than you’d think. So many places, the infinite amount of adventure just waiting to be had, all the different cultures—we spend so much time inside our own small, wired worlds, that we often forget just how big, mysterious and fascinating the world really is.
Maybe you, too, are stuck in deciding between this place or that for this year’s vacation. Should you go to China or Russia? Maybe you’ve always wanted to check out Africa, but then again, you’ve never been Europe.
The time to plan a summer vacation is now. Let’s have a Bull-session, bat around some ideas.
Each week I will highlight a possible destination for our 2019 vacation consideration. Likewise, I want to hear your ideas of what makes a certain destination more desirable than any other. Where have you decided to go this year, and why?
Please, your comments are welcome, they are wanted.
Remember, There’s nothing simple about taking stock in yourself, to look at who you are, the shape of your life—both inside and out—to do that objectively, it’s hard and it takes a toll. It hurts, even. But the return on that self-investment is a lasting one. This, though, is only possible if You are able to get out from under the weight of Your own limited view of the world.
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