My oldest and dearest friend, who is like a sister to me, lives in California. She's always excelled amazingly and easily at everything she's set her mind to: athletics, artwork, friendships, and academics being just some of the few. So when she enrolled in college, I knew she was destined for great things. But she never actually declared a major until it was absolutely necessary, and did so based on the number of classes she had taken that fit into that course of study. She took classes she truly and honestly could learn from, arts classes, cultural classes, and history classes. She took an internship at the Philadelphia Horticultural Society because it fascinated her. And when it came time for her to graduate, she didn't attend her commencement ceremony, and opted rather to take an immediate job creating topigraphical maps of a national park up near University Park, Pennsylvania. Not long after, she took a job teaching 6th graders in California about the ecosystems in their environment at a camp about an hour outside of Napa Valley. She has always had an incredibly free spirit, and I envy that about her almost as much as I miss her.
But when I do see her (which is usually once or twice a year), she's always happy. She never seems to let anything weigh her down. She never worries about money (which she never really spends on anything but true experiences -- wine tastings, festivals, and camping), and she will happily travel on a whim. I would give anything to feel that free about life, and I often think about how I could do it, but I can't wrap my brain around the possibility without giving up everything in my life that's important to me: my job, my love, and leaving my family. So I've decided to try to embrace the chance to feel free in my everyday life. I need to move more slowly, think more slowly, and breathe more slowly. I need to enjoy the little things in life. Maybe, then, it will get me a little bit closer to California and living a free life, even if I can't be with my sister.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment