Can You Travel With You?

In order to travel you have to be pretty secure with yourself. I don't mean you must be arrogant or 100% confident in everything you do. Rather, you have to be willing to do what it takes to get from where you are to where you want to be, and not be too worried about the occasional embarrassment. You have to take in the present and accept what is current and now. You have to be forgiving of your own stupid mistakes so that you can quickly get back on track with plans, move forward in life, and get done what needs to get done.

Example: The first thing I did when I landed in LAX for my layover on my way to Colorado was something really, really stupid. I was extremely focused on making sure I got to my second flight on time, and this is the only reason I can think of for being so dumb. Keep in mind, I've flown by myself before with no problems. I thought everything was going fine, and I was happy that I found my way to my next baggage check-in... that is until I decided to save money on this second flight by removing some items from my bag. During my hectic morning after a night of no sleep, out of convenience I had decided to pay extra for going just a little over the limit on my first flight. I figured now I had a good amount of time to kill so it wouldn't be a problem trying to shuffle some things to my carry-on. Once I zipped open the suitcase, however, a feeling of dread instantly coursed through me because the items inside were not mine. Ahhh yes, the good ol' baggage claim switcheroo. That would explain why the scale gave me a number just slightly off from the one in Hawaii, which I thought was weird but negligible. Sigh. It wasn't. I thought to myself, "I grabbed the wrong suitcase?! Hooooow could I let this happen?" Great. I just assumed the suitcase was mine because I had never seen another like it. Even though it's the first thing a person should do, it didn't even cross my mind to check for a name tag, because all I cared about was where I was going next and not where I was in the moment. I simply wasn't paying attention. In the end things worked out okay because I raced back to the baggage claim area dragging the 50+ lb. bag behind me (future post on cardio routines for travelers?) and a very nice worker helped me pin down where my bag really was -- with a family who was still nearby at a car rental. I felt a little less idiotic when I realized the other people also didn't notice that the suitcase they had wasn't theirs. Turns out, this is a rather common mistake. I felt better about everything when I realized I would still be able to make my next flight.

Other Lessons of Traveling:

Privacy... you won't have it, much of the time. Depending on what kind of space you are sharing, other people will be moving your stuff around and/or absentmindedly gazing into the messy contents of your suitcase. You might feel like your life is on display. People will know what you look like when you wake up in the morning. You might hop into a laundry closet on more than one occasion to change your clothes when other rooms are taken. You will have other people question your method of doing things, even though it's what you always do and you're comfortable with it. At one point you might just find that you are itching to go hide in a corner of a coffee shop for a few hours. Which is what I'm doing right now. :)

Let go of control... even though you made the decision to go somewhere all on your own, you are now at the mercy of other people's schedules, lifestyles, and capacity for hospitality. Of course, how much you are at the mercy of these things is dependent on what resources you brought with you. For me, the hospitality issue was not really an issue at all. So far I have found that shopkeepers, park guides, and other hikers in Colorado are generally pretty friendly. I also had generous friends to stay with. In terms of routine, well, letting go is usually what most travelers want. This becomes the most fun aspect of the experience. It can be very freeing, and a good lesson in adaptation. If you're not a morning person, become one. If you don't usually eat that kind of food, try it today.

Time... does not exist when you are in transition. This has been the weirdest part about traveling and having a major lifestyle change. My thought process about this subject has gone something like this: "It's been a whole month? I feel like that went VERY fast. Wait. Do I? Now that I think about it, I feel like I've been here for 3 months. What's today's date? I'm not totally sure, because it hasn't been an important factor lately."

Here is another question that arose when I started thinking about time: How long can you stay somewhere before it's okay to tell people you've lived there? I feel like Colorado has left an impact on me. I mean, I worked here, I got to know people here, and I learned a lot here. So it's safe to say it's been home, right? It's definitely become a part of my life that I won't forget.

Judgement... of others will decrease. Judgement of yourself may increase. You will be in a constant state of evaluating the world around you, and any moment could be a chance for you to discover how you handle being out of your comfort zone.

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Final words on my first WWOOF-USA experience:

I am very happy I did this! There's no better way to learn than to attend the school of life. I gained a greater appreciation for hard work and knowing where food comes from. Perhaps I need to say where it should come from, ideally. I especially enjoyed eating eggs from chickens that I got to see for myself were happy, healthy, and free to roam. If anything, vegetable gardening will become a hobby for me in the future. There is a possibility I will seek employment in the field somehow. I need more real-world experience before I can make that decision.

I wonder how meeting people, spending a lot of time with them, then leaving soon after is going to affect me in the long run. On my last day at Raisin' Roots, a part of me felt really sad. I felt a bit like I was abandoning a project I had put a lot of effort into, without any real reason for leaving. Yet, I know I do have a reason. It just seems like a vague idea at the moment, because it will throw me back into the unknown. A part of me worries that leaving Colorado is a mistake, because I LOVE it here and it seems like a place full of opportunity. This state is awesome. It is like the "cool kid" of states, minus the ego or hint of trying too hard. In other words, it is actually cool. Still, I must remind myself that I came to the mainland with a plan, and part of the plan is going somewhere else and continuing to try new things. I suppose if I really want to come back to Colorado, I won't let anything prevent that.