Road Trips and Why Everyone Should Travel(the short version)

So, you know all those movies in the 90's and 2000's about road trips? Or well, the two that I can think of off the top of my head? Basically any movie or book or TV series or comic that featured a road trip between friends. Well, those all made us want to go on an epic, life-changing road trip with our best buds, right?

 No? So...that was just me? *taps mic* Is this thing even on?


Ahem.


Yeah, so because of those (especially The Good Girl's Guide to Getting Lost by Rachel Friedman), a road trip has been on my bucket list for years. When my two best friends decided they wanted to go on one I immediately began throwing out ideas and making tentative plans. Mid-May, right after school got out and right before I really began my new job(more on that later) and they had to go back to work, we went. Thoroughly packed and prepared of course(I over-planned and over-packed, because reasons).

That's really all the leg room we had.

 Off across the country for ten days, to Yellowstone National Park we went. It was AMAZING. I'm not going to go all cliche on you guys and say it changed my life forever and I'll never be the same blah blah blah, but it was definitely a fantastic, and at least a little bit of a life-changing experience. Garden of the Gods was really great, and all the rock formations were just so HUGE.

 I used to live in Yellowstone when I was a kid, so it was pretty awesome to be able to go back. I took a few photos reliving moments of my childhood(as soon as I can find the original photos, I'll put those up beside these).
This was *my* tree growing up, and it's been my happy place for years. It was pretty flipping sweet to be there again.

At the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River, in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. This was before the hike down into the Canyon, on the day we called the "Defying Death Day" of the trip. It was a pretty strenuous hike. RIP, my lungs.






And the things we saw on the way up there and on the return trip were just as awesome. I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time ever.

 We stopped at Bryce Canyon on a whim, and I'm so glad we did. That place was beautiful!

So was Zion National Park, which I'd never heard of until recently. Phenomenal beauty, how did I never ever hear about this place?

Alright, enough pic-spam for now. But seriously. These places were amazing. All of these breath-taking landscapes did what I thought they would-they took my breath away. But there was something that I wasn't expecting. Everyone always says places like the Grand Canyon make you feel small. I mean, yeah, they're huge. Pike's Peak(which we couldn't see because of cloud cover) is 14,114 feet above sea level. And I'm barely 5'2". These places did make me feel tiny(not a hard thing to do, standing next to pretty much anyone reminds me of that), but they also made me feel....gigantic. Big enough to do anything. Big enough to face my uncertainty and anxiety head on. Big enough to let change into my life. Big enough to not be afraid of the future. Big enough to remember good times, rather than bad. Big enough to work towards more good memories, rather than sit and wait in the sad times. Travel does that, I know. It widens our perspective, etc. I wish it was more available to everyone. In other countries it's a normal thing for kids to take off a year between high school and college just to travel. It breaks my heart knowing how much travel costs and how so many people never can get any time off to go, or they won't take it, or whatever. A good friend of mine goes to concerts all the time with her dad and her husband. Her little girl, who is now almost 6 months old has technically "seen" a handful of classic rock bands when she was in the womb. My friend and her husband both work a whole lot, but they take the time to go do things. That's awesome to me. More people should take the time to do the things they want to do. I'm so glad my friends and I got to go on this trip. Because it definitely changed my perspective in one big way. I need to take the time, do whatever it really takes to go and do what I want to do *now*. It might be 6 months to a year in between things, but I'm going to travel again as soon as possible. And until then, I'm going to do the small things that broaden my horizons, like read or watch movies/TV shows I've been putting off, spending time with people I haven't seen in forever, blogging and writing more(cough cough). I want to live my life now, not later. There might not be a later. 

I hope you have a wonderful day, dear readers. Find a way to do something for yourself this week that you've been putting off. Even if it's reading a book or taking a weekend morning to drink a cup of coffee and talk on the phone with an old friend. Here's a quote to sum up my feelings for the moment(I've got to run some errands before work, and the morning got away from me), and I pray that can have the ability to do whatever you dream of doing. 

“Begin doing what you want to do now. We are not living in eternity. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand--and melting like a snowflake...”

― Francis Bacon