A Little Travel

The first thing I did after I graduated was wish I was back in school. It was much easier when I had goals, and several professors to tell me what they were and in which font they should be.

Realizing that the period after graduation and before marriage, children, and Volvos, is the best time to get any traveling done, I began looking into cheap ways to do it.

I was able to visit my boyfriend in Quito, Ecuador where he was completing his student teaching (he has the calling). Talk about cheap. He paid for all of it. Thanks, Zimmer. I am still amazed by how Quito was both chaotic and homey all at once. To contrast the ceaseless energy of the city, Aaron took me to visit the cloud-forest of Mindo, where we stayed at Hosteria Mariposas.  It was my first visit to South America. I was only there for 12 days, and I hope to go back someday soon.

A few months earlier, we had applied to several national parks and heard back from Yellowstone first. We eagerly accepted the offered positions of server assistants, and as soon as he returned from South America, made our way from Georgia to Wyoming.

Doing new things is much more difficult for me than I would like to admit. It’s always good to have a little push: someone you can’t disappoint, a written contract, a prepaid flight. I find it helpful to have some factor that maintains the notion that if you back out at the last minute, you’ll look like a tool. I hope that this overstated life lesson isn’t too irritating. You rarely regret doing something you’ve never done before, but you almost always regret what you haven’t done.