a new beginning

            This week I embarked on the first of what will be a series of adventures one after another. Over the next 8 months, I will be traveling to Chicago, Illinois, for a class on politics and faith; Columbus, Ohio, to visit the fam; Sequim, Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula, for a summer research internship; Panama City, Panama, for study abroad; back to Columbus for the winter holidays; Washington, DC, to witness the inauguration of our next President; before finally arriving back in San Diego for my last semester at Loma.  After a hard year at Loma, these adventures will be a good chance for me to rediscover who I am, what matters to me, and how I want to live my life. Bold goals, I know. But I think a journey of self-discovery is the best environment for bold goals. 

Chicago, Part 1

            The first lesson I’ve learned about myself concerns planning. I am, by nature, a planner. Accordingly, I’ve had my life roughly planned out for last five years, with modifications here and there. But I also have a fascinated love of spontaneity. That’s not to say I am myself very spontaneous—again, I’m a planner. It’s hard for me to make decisions suddenly, to just let things go. Still, uncharted adventures, where things just fall into place, have a romantic appeal to me.

            So when visiting a new city I have two compelling desires: the desire to plan out everything I am going to do, and the desire to let everything slide into place, deciding everything on a whim. In my first 24 hours in Chicago I think I’ve found myself some compelling arguments for both of these methods.

            I planned to arrive in Chicago two days early. On coming to Chicago, my plan for finding a place to stay had been to figure it out online during the train ride in. Since the ride from LA to Chicago is about two days long, I figured it would be plenty of time to figure things out (especially since finals week was stressful enough that it would have been hard to sort things out then). Imagine my surprise when I (re)discovered that there was no wifi on the train I took!

            Thankfully, through negotiations with my friend Marissa (an adventurer herself, who I met in Belize) I was able to find a place to crash for the two nights before my housing for Chicago kicks in.

            When I finally had lugged my luggage to Mike’s place, I was honored by his hospitality. He helped me carry my bags, offered me food and water, and set me up with towels for cleaning up. But more importantly, he invited me into his apartment’s evening plans: Super Mario Wii, on the roof, at 10:30pm at night. You know you’re in good company when you’re invited onto the roof to play video games late into the night. It was so much fun. I was so glad to have ended up at their place to stay, even though it didn’t come together fully until the last minute.

            Today, I found myself in a new city with no plans for how to spend my day. Once again, I was not able to track down wifi (apparently I cannot function without ubiquitous Internet), so I decided to just venture forth and figure things out when I got downtown. I checked out the downtown library (I’ll always be a library nerd at heart), then my brain began to stall. I fumbled around, looking for something interesting to eat or see or do. Unfortunately, just bumbling around alone does not facilitate the magical appearance of interesting sights to behold, and my map was conspicuously unhelpful in discerning what I wished to see.            

Wandering around, I felt as though I was wasting my opportunity, missing out on adventures untold. This feeling of aimlessness is the downside to the “just see what happens” approach for me. I know if I was totally that spontaneous person, it wouldn’t bother me so much, but I know that’s not exactly me.

 Eventually, I texted my host for help, and he offered up a perfect solution: a local vegetarian restaurant, “The Chicago Diner.” The place was excellent—good food, lots of choices, and a good atmosphere inside. And it was an opportunity to see another corner of the city while I was out and about.

So ultimately, I’ve learned the importance of both making plans and being flexible with them. Going forward, I want to do a lot of research on the places I go before I go—reading, talking to people who have gone, maybe watching a travel show if I’m really desperate—so I will know what there is to see. And then, once I get there I want to have a list (I love lists!) of things I want to see or do, so I’m not ever stuck feeling like I could be doing something but don’t know what to do. On the other hand, I need to hold on to these plans lightly, staying open to be influenced by the course of events, so I can enjoy the adventure I’m having and not just complete my list.