Here's to the Plans!

Steps Beach, Puerto Rico. December 2012

“When you experience uncertainty, you are on the right path – so don’t give it up. You don’t need to have a complete and rigid idea of what you’ll be doing next week or next year, because if you have a very clear idea of what’s going to happen and you get rigidly attached to it, then you shut out the whole range of possibilities.”

- Deepak Chopra

These past two months have been a whirlwind. It’s been amazing, it’s been crazy, but it’s really just been a blur. Graduating from college this past December was a bittersweet experience. On one hand it’s such an accomplishment, and I was filled with excitement and anticipation for what the future would hold. I was also done with school. Done. Done with tests, done with projects, and done with the headache that was our campus parking garage. On the other hand, I felt an intense sense of remorse. Thinking about the next step was really quite unnerving. It seemed like a large chunk of my youth had sped by in a flash,and I was just now realizing it.

“Time to grow up,” people would tell me. “Welcome to the real world,” they would say. “So, have you found a job yet? What are you going to do with your life?”

At first, I dreaded these questions. I was embarrassed to say, “I don’t know,” because I felt like I had to know. Did they expect me to know? I didn’t have it all planned out yet. “I’m going on a surf trip to Puerto Rico for a month, and then… I’ll figure it out.” That’s what I would tell those people, and they would look at me like I was crazy. Was I crazy? I mean, at that time my biggest concerns were how many bikinis I should bring with me and which surfboards I was going to pack. My future? I hadn’t really thought about it too much.

Returning to Florida after my month-long vacation I began to notice that I was slowly warming up to this “I don’t know” answer. Because in all honesty, I didn’t know, and I still don’t. And there is nothing wrong with that. I’m embracing and accepting this state of limbo. I deserve this time to wander, to do what I want, when I want, and to figure out shit on my own. What I do know is that I want to travel. I want to experience as much as I can while I’m still young.  I want to surf perfect waves, surf bigger waves, and meet new people and experience different cultures along the way. I don’t want to be in one place for too long.

I don’t want to be “comfortable.” I have the rest of my life to be “comfortable.” I want to challenge myself, scare myself a little bit, and accumulate a lifetime full of eccentric stories. As cliché as it sounds, I want to live with no regrets.

So it's onto this new chapter of my life, filled with mystery, uncertainty and pure adventure. I’ve made a “plan” (blehh…that word just leaves a bad taste in my mouth) to stay in Florida through the summer. I will continue working my current job as a bartender and waitress. And starting in April I will be taking part in an intensive 200-hour Teacher Training Program at my local yoga studio. Come fall I will be financially and mentally ready to go, to spread my wings and to fly! This blog is a way for me to channel my experiences, my passions and my fears. It’s for the surfers, the wanderers, the dreamers, and the youth, like me, that are inspired by the plan of simply not having one.

I raise my glass to the plan of not having a plan and I'm just gonna live. Like really live. Because those “I don’t knows” and “I haven’t thought about it yets” excite me. The uncertain and the uncomfortable are what fuel my fire now. I hope you join me on my journey. 

What’s something that inspires you most? Something that scares you and intrigues you at the same time? Think about it. And I hope one day you go out and do it.