Into the Wild

Tonight I am pup sitting for my best friend and her husband. They are at an overnight wedding and have two adorable young yorkies that needed someone to take care of them. As my reign in corporate America came to an end yesterday, I took up the offer to have a slumber party with the pups. Yeah, ok it's Saturday night. I guess I should be at a bar, but my liver is still recovering from my send off work outing from this past Thursday. Guess that's part of getting old, you never quite bounce back as quickly as you did in college. Sad.

Anyhow, the pups are napping now after dodging a skunk in the back yard (don't worry friend if you are reading this, we avoided the skunk, your pups do not smell like garbage), so I've decided to write a new post about something I often find myself debating about.

Perhaps you've heard the story, read the book or seen the movie about Chris McCandless, aka Alexander Supertramp. After graduating college, instead of doing what was expected of him...going to grad school or landing a "real job" and becoming just another cog in the wheel that is corporate America, he gave away all his money and set across the US on a great adventure. Granted, this great adventure lead to his death in an abandoned bus in a remote location of Alaska, but a part of me can't help identifying with what he had set out to do.

I read Into the Wild, the story of Chris McCandless, last summer, and a particular quote struck a cord with me. It goes a little something like this:

So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity, and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.

I am now living my life by this quote. I've lived a secure life and conformed to what society has expected me to do, and although my life is good and fine, I have not been satisfied. Now, by giving up my job and apartment and moving to a new state, my adventure begins and I am looking forward to where this new road will take me.

So I ask you this...was Chris McCandless onto something when he said this? Or was he just a delusional dreamer? Is it crazy to give up the security, conformity and conservatism that we're taught to embrace just to save the adventurous soul that lives within us? Am I a delusional dreamer as well? Perhaps, but I'm willing to take this journey to find out.

What's the Point

Today marks a very big landmark. Two months from today exactly, I will be moving over 400 miles south to Annapolis, MD. Some people don't understand why I am doing this. I'm leaving behind a good, solid job where I have potential to grow. I'm moving out of my wonderful little apartment in a suburb of Boston that I share with one of my best friends and our panther of a cat, Max. It has been a steal of a deal that includes free parking, a back yard where I can grow a garden and an amazing view of Boston. Half of my family is within an hours drive from me and most of my closest high school and college friends are in the area.

I have no friends in Annapolis. I haven't even found a place to live yet. The closest friend is a 1/2 hour drive away and the closest family member is 1 1/2 hours across the state border into Virginia.

So, what's the point of all this then? Why do it?

Because if I don't do it now, I never will.

I was born in Connecticut, raised in a small, but popular seacoast tourist town in New Hampshire and came down to Boston for college and never left. Seven years after I first moved down here for school, I am still here.

My life in Massachusetts has all happened by chance. I had my heart set on attending the University of Miami, but upon hearing the news that I'd only be able to come home twice a year, I changed my decision and attended a small, private business school outside of Boston. I met a boy within the first week there, fell madly in love and had a tempestuous relationship that lasted almost five years and kept me in Boston after graduation. I got a job to be near him, and when the relationship failed, I got an apartment in the area to support the job. Soon after I settled in, I was laid off and had to find a new job to support my apartment. I soon found a job and the cycle continued.

I had never envisioned myself living long term in Massachusetts, and here I was continually being given a reason to stay. No offense, but I strongly dislike this state. People are rude, taxes are high, the winters long and cold, the summers never long enough, the drivers are crazy and the pace of life is faster than I care for. I grew up on the water, driving boats and working on horse farms. People in New Hampshire are NICE and will actually say hi when passing you in the streets. I miss friendly people and the slower pace of life. What I don't miss, and what I can't tolerate anymore, is the depressingly long, cold and snowy winters.

SO. My epiphany to move came to me one day like this. I like to watch the Today show when I get ready for work. It gives me just enough of my news mixed with tabloid gossip to jump start my day. On one particularly cold, miserable, dreary morning in March, they showed a live image of the cherry blossoms in bloom in DC. It was full blown spring down there. That was my last straw. Never before had I made such a snap decision, a life changing one at that, that I felt so confident in. I was moving south. I was moving to a seacoast town where the weather was nice and people were friendly. I had had enough.

So over the past few months I've slowly been letting the cat out of the bag to my friends and family. Everyone has been supportive. I even went to Annapolis over Memorial Day to make sure this was what I wanted. And it was. And is. My mind is made up and now all I have to do is neatly wrap up my life here in New England in the next 60 days. This includes leaving my current job, training for my new one, (which involves moving into the family business), selling furniture, packing my belongings, looking for somewhere, anywhere to live in MD, and saying goodbye to the friends and family that have been so close to me for so long. Oh, and did I mention I'm riding 85 miles on August 1st in the Pan Mass Challenge and need to fit training into this schedule as well? So yeah, maybe this won't be wrapped up as neatly as I'd like, but at least I have 60 days to try.

I have a lot to do in the next 60 days, and I want to do it all. I have started a list of things I need to see and do in Boston and NH before I move south. In my next post I'll go more into this. For now, I go to bed dreaming of how my life is about to change and I am ready for this challenge.