“There are in our existence spots of time…”

I started off the second half of The Art of Travel thinking I would be unable to relate with what exactly de Botton was saying. In the first section de Botton talks about how Wordsworth says that people who are in cities are going to have anxiety and are not going to live as well as they might out in nature. This is where I was lost. I love to be in a big city, I love to think that I am just one person working for something that no one cares about, that no one directly knows me, and that I am unidentifiable in a sea of millions. There is a freedom that I think comes in feeling this way. In Olympia I feel less like myself, I have to be careful what I do because I feel almost like I am being recorded, at every turn of a corner there could be someone I know standing there. Its not that I am doing something sinister and I am afraid of being caught, but just the idea of there always being the same people around doesn’t make me feel comfortable. I worry and stres about what I am contributing to the town. Being in Seattle feels like the complete opposite of this, when I’m in Seattle no one cares about me. My two sisters also lived within the city when I lived there, and we never ran into each other once. When I am in a big city I can sit alone at a bar or coffee shop and no one will come to check on me, ask me why I not with so and so, or if I im doing ok. I feel like I can just exist in a place as I need to be. The best way to describe how I feel in the city is small, and this feeling was my reentry point back into the chapter. De Botton actually talks about the feeling of being small, and although he is talking about nature when he describes how being next to a mountain makes him feel, it is exactly how I feel when I’m sandwiched between a few skyscrapers. De Botton speaks about how being in a place with intense scenic nature can make people think about the idea of it being made by a greater being, that it is too great for it to be left up to chance. I feel this same way sometimes when I think about cities, not that I think about them being made outside the hands of man, but that no one man was in control, that it was an effort of a collective, something bigger than any one person. All in all, the section of The Art of Travel on landscapes really did make me think about my field study because Seattle has so much nature surrounding it. I wonder if this is why I don’t feel anxiety in the city. There is a park in almost every neighborhood of Seattle, and it is almost difficult to find a spot where you can’t see or smell the water. In my field study I will be looking at the way people create music, if they turn to these little patches of nature in the city, take to the streets, or if it is a mix of both.

Another section of The Art of Travel I really related too, was when de Botton talks about John Ruskin’s love of sketching wherever he goes. Particularly I enjoyed when Ruskin describes what a sketcher would see compared to another man, he says: “The one will see a lane and trees; he will perceive the trees to be green, though he will think nothing about it; he will see that the sun shines, and that it has a cheerful effect; and that’s all! But what will the sketcher see? His eye is accustomed to search into the cause of beauty, and penetrate the minutest part of loveliness” I don’t think of myself as a person who is great at sketching, and I was concerned that I would be less struck by the city around me because Seattle isn’t new to me. However, now I feel like I will make some real discoveries by constantly sketching and learning to be “accustomed to search into the cause of beauty”

Unlike last week, I did not underline this piece of the text in my first read-through of Alain de Botton’s novel, The Art of Travel. I was, however, drawn to William Wordsworth’s sentiment of having spent “half his boyhood in running wild among mountains” (de Botton 131).  I find this activity to be highly attractive, as it […]

“There are in our existence spots of time, 

That with distinct pre-eminence retain

a renovating virtue…

That penetrates, enables us to mount,

When  high, more high, and lifts us up when fallen”

                         – William Wordsworth

Last spring I went on a road trip with my Mother. The only thing we were sure of was that we had 5 days to get to New Mexico. My grandmother had just finished the third of her book series and was hosting a book launch in Albuquerque. However, a phone call leading up to the trip revealed that both my mother and I were struggling in our day-to-day lives at home, and needed a reason to get up in the morning. The reason we took the trip was because we had been in a funk, and needed a change of scenery. Looking back on it now, my motives for traveling were very personal. Once we were on the road, it didn’t take us long to decide that we were going to stop in Moab, Utah to watch the sunset over Arches National Park (I took the photo above about an hour before sunset). I was noticeably uncomfortable driving through Utah. That is, until we reached Moab. As soon as we entered the park, I felt a overwhelming sense of relief – I had found what I was looking for, a ‘spot of time’. We drove through the arches with the windows down, the scene was sound tracked with under the breath “wows” and sighs. I took some pictures, but once the sun started to set I put away my camera and my phone so to capture the moment as best I could. We went on a small hike and found a perfect spot to sit and watch the sunset. As badly has I wanted to push against Wordsworth’s romanticism  of nature, this moment kept coming to my mind. I’ve tried to put into words what I experienced that evening many times,  and my mother and I still talk about it. Maybe was the feeling of being apart of something so much greater than myself, or maybe it was seeing how vast and beautiful the world is – and how small my life is in comparison. I had brought myself with me on that trip and in that moment I was able to let go of that. It was a spiritual experience that I won’t soon forget.

Nature has a way of inserting itself into our consciousness – I’m not sure why I can remember that scene in Moab more vividly than I can remember important life events like my high school graduation, or birthdays. Something about that scene makes its way to the forefront of my mind when I need it. “Wordsworth urges us to travel through landscapes in order to feel emotions that may benefit our souls. I set out for the desert so as to be made to feel small” (157)  de Botton recognizes the link between ‘sublime’ landscapes and God.  “It is as if these landscapes allowed travelers to experience transcendent feelings that they no longer felt in cities and the cultivated countryside. The landscapes offered them an emotional connection  to a greater power, even as they freed them of the need to subscribe to the more specific and now less plausible claims of biblical texts and organised religions.” (169) I think it is true hat nature humbles our souls, I think it is true that when we are standing near a mountain – we are reminded of our smallness. I also believe that one can feel that same smallness standing in the midst of the city bustle. The difference is that in a city, everyone as something to be doing – a purpose. Next to a mountain, or gazing at the sun setting on vibrant orange structures of nature, the only thing you can do is see, notice, and reflect. That is something you can’t find anywhere else. “Nature was an indispensable corrective to the psychological damage inflicted by life in the city” (Wordsworth, 134)

In these weeks leading up to my trip, I think it is important for me to reflect on these notions. Later on the The Art of Travel de Botton introduces the philosophy of Ruskin, an artist whose value for drawing I found to be refreshing. During the sketching workshop last week, I felt so frustrated by the fact that I was unable to capture the beauty of the trees – and the stark contrast between concrete and forest. After reading this, I realized that my purpose for sketching was motivated by my desire to possess beauty, rather than notice it.  This affected my ability to pay attention to details, and to understand what I was looking at. Ruskin says “My efforts are directed not to making a carpenter an artist, but to making him happier as a carpenter.” So, it is okay that I am not an expert at drawing, it is okay that I am not an expert at seeing – but I believe these ideas are going to greatly impact my ability to make the most of my time in New Orleans, and will challenge me to look deeper and longer and to really notice. 

The borders of Fishtown is debated. The newest resident suggest that the borders are defined by a triangle created by the Delaware River, Frankfor Avenue, and York Street. Newer residents believe the area to expand to Lehigh Avenue while traditional working class Irish Catholic families shrink its borders to Norris Street.

Below is a link to see the borders of Fishtown, Pennsylvania.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fishtown,+Philadelphia,+PA/@39.97208,-75.127167,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89c6c840e1ff0b9b:0xd6180b4ad17b6374

The neighborhood is a mix of “Row Housing,” small Fishtown convenient stores, Irish pubs, and music venue. In addition, many people rent spaces that were originally Warehouses that were converted into living spaces. These areas have provided excellent spaces for musicians to practice. A lot of people who play music try to find housing in warehouses because they are big enough to support a full band practicing but they are cheap. Local musicians and artists who occupy warehouses in the neighborhood typically work entry level positions at local businesses on Frankford Avenue. Frankford Avenue is a long street of Cafes’s, Art Venues, Bars, Musical Venues and Restaurants. Frankford Avenue’s local Art and and Music scene has been crucial to the neighborhood’s radical transformation into a Philadelphia hotspot. Many attribute the the success to an Architect named Roland Kassis.

“Roland Kassis is the reigning developer. Over 25 years, Kassis estimates, his company, Domani Developers, has collected a million square feet of property, mainly in old manufacturing buildings along Frankford Avenue, the neighborhood’s commercial spine. That’s almost as much space as the Comcast Tower holds.

Kassis, 44, who was born in Lebanon, raised in Liberia, and speaks French, exhibits the same manic energy and insatiable appetite for abandoned factories as the other neighborhood titans, but he has a sensibility more in tune with Fishtown’s arty, DIY, tattoo-and-vintage-loving culture. He not only nurtured a yoga studio on Frankford Avenue, he practices there and eschews meat. It’s hard to imagine many other Philadelphia developers chanting “Om.”

Having already populated Frankford Avenue’s eclectic buildings with a beer garden, La Colombe super-cafe, vintage clothing stores, an edgy hair salon, Web designers, and upscale BBQ and cheesesteak restaurants, Kassis is attempting his first new construction project, a boutique hotel a half-block north of Girard Avenue next to Frankford Hall. Its inspiration comes from the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg section. Kassis has even hired the Wythe’s New York architect, Morris Adjmi.”-http://articles.philly.com/2015-03-07/entertainment/59848685_1_boutique-hotel-beer-garden-frankford-hall

While I have a great deal more to learn about Fishtown’s architecture, I believe that the Row houses, local shops, and Frankford’s  Brooklyn infused “nouveau industrial” styles are the primary basis for the aesthetic.

Currently, I am staying in a neighborhood called Fishtown in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The neighborhood looks a lot like Williamsburg, Brooklyn and is located ten minutes from Center City (downtown). Fishtown is becoming widely accepted as an art, music and cultural center. Several years ago it was considered a poor neighborhood. Crime, drugs, and poverty were prevalent. Throughout the past few years, the neighborhood has experienced an art and music renaissance. As a result, new businesses have been opening their doors, property value has spiked, art and music have become more prevalent than crime.

When someone is walking through Fishtown, it is impossible not to notice the unbelievable amount of Murals and Graffiti. Some of the Murals have been painted by nationally acclaimed artists like Kurt Vile and Shepard Fairey. Through independent research, I have discovered that Philadelphia has more Murals than any other city in the United States.

The Philadelphia Mural Arts Program’s website describes the history of Mural art in Philadelphia under their “overview” page.

“Mural Arts was first established in 1984 as part of the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network’s effort to eradicate the city’s graffiti crisis. Artist Jane Golden was hired to reach out to graffiti writers and redirect their energies to constructive public art projects. In addition to addressing the problem of graffiti, Mural Arts’ collective mural-making processes proved to be a powerful tool for generating dialogue, building relationships, empowering communities, and sparking economic revitalization. In 1996, the Anti-Graffiti Network was reorganized and the Mural Arts Program became its own entity. Soon after, the nonprofit Philadelphia Mural Arts Advocates was established to raise additional funds for the program, making Mural Arts a unique public/private partnership.

The organization targets every neighborhood in Philadelphia, each year enrolling 2,000 individuals in its three programmatic initiatives and directly engaging an additional 8,000 in its projects. The programmatic initiatives include Art Education for youth; Restorative Justice for inmates, those re-entering society, and victims of violence; and Porch Light for those struggling with mental illness, trauma, and addiction. Each of these initiatives generates projects with themes and processes relevant to their target constituencies. Mural Arts also has a Community Murals department, which focuses on creating projects in collaboration with community groups and organizations; and a Special Projects department that produces large-scale artworks meant to push the boundaries of public art.”

Here are a few of the murals I have seen in Fishtown so far.

This paper focuses on the thought of the quote more through what I say in De Botton’s work, and the observe what I came across while going over the art of travel, I came up with quotes I felt are related to the  prompt at hand which is “Journey’s are the midwife of thought. Which gave me more of a perspective to read the book in a more enhancing way. Although this focuses less on the PDF, I still found the PDF to be enlightening to what I currently have written in my paper.

“if we are surprised by the power of one sulk to destroy the beneficial effects of an entire hotel, it is because we misunderstand what holds up our moods we are glad at home and blame the weather…the state of the skies and the appearance of our dwelling can never an their own either underwriter our joy or condemn us to misery.” (The art of travel, De Botton, 2007 pg.25 )

To me it seems the author displays this sarcastic value to his writing, its as if I see the quote more as a question to the reader, where it is displayed as such to be a very vague, but noticeable question to the people who appeal to it. For example “If were surprised by the power of one sulk to destroy the beneficial effects of an entire hotel” with those odds its a analogy to maybe symbolize that you gain benefit from certain rewards or achievements. I believe that is determined by the reader whether they choose which way to go. Therefore this quote allows myself to think of this as a personal opinion and a look on my own characteristics within yourself. It then goes on to say “[Its is because what holds up our mood, we are at home and blame the weather…]” The art of travel, De Botton, 2007 pg. 25). Through characteristics it can be a abundant of things, such as sadness, depression and etc.  Going over this then gave me into a perspective that displayed denial,  I mean if actually gives us this quote of one affecting others experience for the sake of yours, then what harm could denial of ones control not go anywhere?

“Anything I learn’t would have to be justified by private benefit rather than by the interest of others. My discoveries would have to enliven the, they would have in some way to prove life – enhancing” (The art of travel, De Botton, 2007, pg 109)

This reminded me of a learning curve will experience with ourselves when on our own journeys, and in order to achieve or even just progress through that learning curve. You have to learn what justifies your work? Does your work have interest in a private benefit or for the benefit of others?  These are then discovered through ours travels through a journey on different perspective to give you a life living lesson. I thought of these as checkpoints within your life that you can capture for the later future as mementos and or milestones if you would prefer it more as rewards and pleasure out of knowing you’ve experienced such a thing.

“There was another problem: the explorers who had come before and discovered facts had at the same time laid down distinctions between what was significant and what was not distinctions that had, overtime, hardened into almost immutable truths about value in Malay.” The art of travel, De Botton, 2007 pg. 111)

This was seen to me as the after effect, this effect is what we discover through the confrontation of a new way of life opening your brain to different knowledge but through a personal perspective of consciousness. What would happen if we gathered this evidence of the current research place as we approach, we then cover up on everything and know as much as we possibly can to be informed, but when it comes to the real life experience you then start to realize the experiences. The hands on look and feel of the experience of being in a different perspective than what you’re use to excites and even frightens you. thats why this is considered still another problem to me, at this current point and time.

This is not to appoint you to say that De Botton is crazy or anything, this is just stating my opinion on what I interpret what he’s saying, to only compromise with myself to make sense of his text to enlighten and enrich my experience going into my own journey. The feeling of reading this was to be more emphatic about my experience and to look over or reflect on it as if this will be a life resolving thing. Its insight to look upon for inspiration, but as a cohesive book was referenced guide to observe, look, listen,respect and achieve ultimate enlightenment so far, talking about the process one goes through when traveling to replore, to explain it’s basic probabilities and accept them and act to ones best as a representative of research for your cause.

To add a personal opinion to my paper, I also feel reading this has enlightened my mind of what to expect, vs my experience when I spet upon honolulu’s sands. I have given myself this mindset through the data I’ve collected, guilty of it too.

As de Botton guidelines that make up a beautiful city, I thought about applying them to the composition of  a beautiful song, full of lyrics and different instruments playing harmonies, multiple vocalists singing. Each song is a moment of clarity, with brutal honesty, it is raw beauty, there is visible life not just in the lyrical message but in each strum of a guitar, the rhythm kept by the hand beating the drum and the life travels from those performing to the dancing decades around them. Tapping of toes from feet  that have yet to take their first step to those that have walked a thousand miles. Mysterious chaos brought together on a scale of organized complexity creating a true circle of life. As the performance ends we show gratitude by clapping and cheering erratically as if it were a celebration and just as quick as they came together, united by the song, they are carried away in a gust of wind like cherry blossoms in early April…Until the next song.

Wednesday I danced to the beat of another song. An entire class of 50 people came together as one. We moved in chaotic unison. Artistically following, once a student of a wise musician, a family sharing theses sacred movements; 1+1=3. I have began to cherish these times of sacred movement. Movement that, at one time, intimidated me. Movement is something I lose a little of each day beginning the day I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Movement I will lose a lot faster by not moving at all. When I first began my journey at Evergreen I was told I  could opt out of dancing seminars and workshops because of my ‘disability’. I spent the first few classes watching this wide variety of people, ages 18-76, feel completely comfortable moving and dancing together.  A sense of peace and harmony came over the room that was absent seconds before.  Awareness blanketed the students and professors dancing followed by excitement, joy and laughter—they would center the energy and then share it. Immediately I experienced and over abundance of energy and truly found it hard to not join this sense of togetherness. I came to Evergreen after losing my career to MS, and MS had dictated more aspects in my life than I anticipated. I caught myself 3 years after my diagnosis being defined by the little blue placard hanging from my review. Hirsh Diamant helped change my perspective, Evergreen was my vehicle and class would be the path to my redefinition, my new perspective of me. A woman, a mother, and I can. I may not be who I was or who I planned to be, but I still am. In this blog I will share my journey and interactions of with MS, Music, Connections, and The City.

While reading The Art of Travel these are a few passages that I related to-

“Stupidity is something immovable you can’t be  try to tack it with out be broken by it.”  Gustave Flaubert insisted he was not French. After his emotional connection with Egypt which he then had a new view of nationality, in fact it is not country or family defined by lines but which region was attractive, and full of feeling should nationality and identity.

National Identity; the country I love and makes me feel well. Narrow minded to not be a soul brother to the giraffe and crocodile than to man. Sorcrates  said not from Athens but from the world.”

This passage made me compare Flaubert to a man much like my father as he would introduce himself as Rick Montana to any person he meets. I AM from Montana, a small town with no stoplights, no hospital. The Rocky Mountains are beautiful with at least one 30 point buck. The Kootenai River flows swift and strong with the clearest water and biggest brightest fish. A place where living is easy, everything goes right, and everyday is a great day to be outdoors, alive with all the land, water and wildlife. “I want to buy myself a beautiful bear and below it write here is a portrait of Gustave Flaubert.”  My father loathes Washington, especially Olympia. It would make one curious as to why he picked up and left Montana in 1987, just to settle 13 miles west of Olympia in rural Steamboat Island. He doesn’t have any answers to that, but can detour the answer into a 30 minute (at least) plan to get back to Big Sky Country. I didn’t meet my father until May 31, 1996; my mother never told him of my existence, so I was a packet of paternity papers and a knock on his Olympia Washington door from a County Sheriff earlier that year. From the day I met my father (he picked me up from school on my last day of 3rd grade in Troy Montana) he has been moving back to Montana, just shy of 19 years. I can only imagine he has been planning to move back since he first crossed that state line. Interestingly enough my father, Rick Smith Sr was born in Aberdeen Washington. I am the only one out of my entire family that was truly born in Montana. I assume that my father, has somewhat of the same view in heritage as Flaubert.

unedited notes class notes:

The music is a language; each rhythm is lyrical; understood only by locals or those who truly engaged in the specific rituals and song of that heritage.

We all dance to the beat of our own drum.

Wherever he goes is where ever he is.

Travel can facilitate thinking.

Funding, art, idea’s, embrace, repetition, culture, elite are not only capable, broad generalization, stereo typical, superior extremes, divided (stage/crowd) myths of american music culture examples (I can’t do math) connecting “building a beautiful city, writing a beautiful song,” can you apply the same set of guidelines to different music cultures, poly-rhythm,

We love values missing from our  own culture,  desire of a place may  fuel desire for people in it. Flaubert in  Egypt (descriptively describes woman) we told each other so much through touch. She fell asleep with her hand in mine, face was mostly in shadow. Then continues to discuss coming back and feeling of melancholy and sadness because now it would be a goodbye, the last time he would see the woman.

Pg 116 bored by nothing

pg 167

Pg It always seems to me I’ll be well

Pg. 14 which explains the curious phenomenons art and reality

Pg. 25 we are sad at home and blame the art on the wall or he buildings

Pg 20 slow curiosity bordem or dispear

Boring time useful and enjoyable

Pg 54-thinking properly

Pg. 111

Pg 56 tethered to life at home

500 miles

Urban musical soundscapes are projected to grow within the next couple of decades (Shelemay, pg. 50, 2006). Cities are expanding rapidly and suburban lifestyles are slowing decreasing in population. If such areas are to change, what keeps a location distinctive, how can locals attain a familiarity with sights and sounds, and how can the influences of other nearby cities either positively or negatively affect the music coming in and out of the urban area? What constitutes popular music, and how does it vary in different cultures, environments, and seasons? The way music is culturally blended is an example of how music does indeed travel over time and continents, but what is the main factor…politics, religion, economic status, industrialization, trade?

Rollin’

Shelemay address these questions by using Accra, Ghana as an example of the “forced flow of musical influences” relating the history of the Gold Coast, Europe, and the New World to slave trade and the industrialization of the British Empire (Shelemay, pg. 53, 2006).

Summit Lake, Drunken Escape

The city of Accra is filled with music for any occasion or non-occasion (as our guest speaker/dance instructor mentioned April, 1 2015) There are many call and response songs, hymns, and dances that all involve instruments and rely heavily on the rhythm section (Genre: Agbadza) (Shelemay, pg. 55, 2006). A lot of times these songs are about political and social issues as well as songs to teach and pass along the day. This type of music that has developed in Accra may be a reaction to what Botton describes the brain’s function when a journey occurs. During times of difficulty and stress we develop large views and new thoughts leading to introspective reflections that require much thought even reluctancy to think at all (Botton, pg. 56, 2002). Music is an incredible release and an effective way to bring together a group/culture of like minds and help distract from any sort of stress that life brings. This also naturally leads to the progression of traditions, rituals, ceremonies, and story telling which keeps a city’s history and future rich in culture.

High and Mighty

This type of oral history and traditions play a large role in tourism and travel. Friedrich Nietzsche defined a type of tourism as learning how certain societies and identities have been formed by the past to find a sense of belonging (Botton, pg. 110, 2002). This plays directly with Accra as Ghana’s capital and the various musical scenes it is home to. “A number of musical ensembles reinforce national identity, helping to unite the many historically independent ethnic groups brought together as a nation less than fifty years ago and representing Ghana to the world” (Shelemay, pg. 61, 2006).

I’ve got the world on a string

This is a fine way to incorporate and educate tourism in a non invasion form and allows music and culture to coexist in a beautiful fusion without loosing it’s proper identity, as heard in J. H Kwabena Nketia’s “Cow Lane Sextet”.

Pacific City

The importance of traveling has never been so prevalent until now. It is always a great escape and thought as a getaway or perhaps a spring break vacation, but the main idea that has been brought to attention of traveling is that of justifying existence through the world, acknowledging the past and present, and distributing kindness and knowledge through music, traditional dances, food, and words of wisdom from nation to nation.

JackPot

Journeys are the midwives of thought, and yet seldom is the act of journeying reflected upon. Reading The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton has given me a very unique perspective to travel itself, yet I find most if not all of what it says to be true. Typically, people are so excited to reach a destination that they overlook the introspective aspect of the journey itself. Whether you are travelling by car, plane, train, or what have you, the scenery rolling by you creates a constant barrage of visual stimulation, which keeps your brain much more active than any other time that you will find yourself sitting down. When sitting in a plane, I have often thought about how small all of my problems as well as my physical being are when I look at entire cities or large expanses of land below me. In the car, I watch scenes whiz by me. One moment you are looking at a group of businessmen casually chatting while walking down the street, and the next block you are witnessing a fistfight.

Even though you are constantly stimulated with new outside imagery, it isn’t an over stimulation.  Watching the landscape moving past you not only allows you to think about the physical realm of the outside, but it gives one space to self reflect and think about who we truly are. We are able to disconnect ourselves from any geographic or social influences, and become one with who we are and what we want. As De Botton explains it, “The furniture insists that we cannot change because it does not; the domestice setting keeps us tethered to the person we are in ordinary life, but who may not be who we essentially are.” This isolation creates an othering between us and our world that we function in day to day. We are not at home where we are used to are surroundings, yet we have not yet arrived at any destination to give ourselves a sense of place. We are in a state of limbo, where we can become one with our true thoughts and get a sense of place not rooted in the external, but within ourselves.

When I prepare for my trip to Los Angeles, it is necessary for me to keep in mind that I am not only just going to be in the Greater Los Angeles area, but I will be travelling by car from Olympia. Having done this trip before, I know what to expect visually; the change in climate, the drying out of the landscape, the cultural differences between the Pacific Northwest and SoCal, and the vast amount of open space between the large cities that I will pass through as I journey down the spine of the American West coast. However, it will be in much different context. When I traveled to Los Angeles previously, I was on my way to Texas, and I had found a ride there with someone that I barely knew who had family that we could crash with along the way, which took us through Oregon, California, Arizona, New Mexico and then finally to Texas. Almost from the get go, our personalities did not work well together, as well as the fact that we were crammed in a completely packed vehicle, altogether creating a very difficult environment to enjoy the act of travelling. We disagreed on almost everything, and that made the overall experience tainted with a shadow of annoyance.

This trip, I will be alone. I will have the mental and physical space to critically think about not only my journey, but myself as well. I eagerly await the day that I start my car, pull out of my driveway, and begin to drive down I-5, passing familiar landmarks until I hit a point where I am a tourist, foreign to the land around me. I want to lose myself physically so that I can better attune to my true self, where I can reflect on all of the time, research and effort I put into this trip and how I can make my goals reality. Further, I will be able to reflect on my life in a much larger sense. Where am I going? Who am I? By removing yourself from your comfort zone(s), you can truly probe these questions in an objective sense, and figure out what you want most not only out of your travels but out of your life.