It's all happening!

Hey! I'm really glad you're reading my blog. I don't really expect people to follow it, but a few dozen people already viewed blogpost #1. That's pretty cool! I basically started it so I would have something to look back on, without expectation that others would read it. So thanks for that. If you would like to help me out a bit, you can click HERE to help me get a bike (definitely used) when I arrive there, find a place to live, or offset the cost of my (stupidly expensive) one way plane ticket. Anything and everything helps and is greatly appreciated. Maybe pass the link along? Thanks!
Alright. On to BLOG POST #2!

Two weeks.
Two weeks.
TWO WEEKS(!).

Okay. This is starting to freak me out a little. I leave for New Zealand in just two weeks. I can genuinely say that I did not see myself in this position when I graduated this past May. Many of my tentative plans fell through during the past few months of my life, much to my chagrin. Getting a visa for New Zealand was not on my plate until very recently. And now I'm moving half way across the world in less than a month. Yeesh.

Before I graduated, I started to look for a bunch of jobs that would give me some experience in the outdoors (if you couldn't tell yet, nature and the outdoors are some of my biggest passions in life. I adore hiking and camping. It just feels right). I applied to a bunch of National Parks around the U.S. for various positions. Most were seasonal work, some were permanent positions. Anything to get my foot in the door. I have a bunch of personal experience doing solo camping, group camping, trip planning, etc. Problem is that most outdoors jobs only take professional experience seriously (or require different certifications which cost a canoe full of $$$). So the last few months of college were dotted by various application denials, bouts of moody pouting, and drinking delicious craft Wisconsin beers in greater amount and at greater speed than should be done. Having no idea what to do next, I switched from part time to full time at the coffee shop where I worked, so that I would at least have some more time to figure out what the heck to do next. That was an alright decision. Had a great time serving coffee at the EC Farmers Market three days out of the week. Highlight of the whole summer though was being able to go to Eaux Claires Music Festival with some of the greatest people alive.
File under: Top 10 Life Experiences.

Devan, Kristi, Emily, Taylor and me @Doomtree. #yoursquadgoals

(Roman and Adam were MIA)

But living there mostly felt like stagnation. Maybe it's a character flaw, maybe it's due to reading too many books about different places, but if I'm in single place for a while I start to feel trapped. Don't get me wrong, Eau Claire has many great things to offer. I had just been there too long.

The whole summer I was admittedly less active in my search for future endeavors than I should have been. Every once in a while I would make a google search for things like, "outdoor jobs in the western U.S.", "hiking guide jobs", and "after college life". Nothing really came of it though. It felt shitty not knowing what my life was going to be about once my lease was up at the end of August. Paraphrasing Steinbeck, this was the summer of my discontent.

Fast forward to about two months ago, I was starting to figure out the obvious: if I stayed in the U.S., I'd have to wait another year til next summer to get pretty much any job in the National Parks. Cue new wellspring of anxiety. Magic computation machine to the rescue. Through the voodoo of the internets I found this weird thing called a working holiday visa. 
My internal dialogue went as such: Huh. This visa thing sounds pretty cool. I've always wanted to go to New Zealand. Wait. If I do this it'll be the end of spring/start of summer, so I won't have to wait to try to get an outdoor job. Doesn't cost anything to apply? Eh, might as well.

And that was that. I don't think I even made a decision to do it. My mind only slowly caught up with what happened. I'm moving to New Zealand on a whim. That's how all big life decisions should be made right? ...right?

The thing is... I'm terrified. This kind of stress was pretty normal since the end of college. I thought that would go away once I new where I'd be going or what I'd be doing. But no. And I think that's a good thing. It's motivation to boldly go. There's something wildly energizing about throwing myself into the void, not knowing what will happen. Comfort is not worth much to me. Everything will work out in the end. 

As the great Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen said, "adventure is just bad planning"*.




*Alternatively, "it's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to".