On Dreams...

School has been super awful this semester. And sometimes it really gets me down. These are the times when I wonder why I am even in school at all. Why don't I just leave? Then I think, "What would I do if I left?" It is at this point that I realize that I don't really have much of a clue what I am going to do when I finish anyway, so why not just leave now and figure it out sooner than later? I know I want to be an entrepreneur, I have some ideas I could get started, and all this I want to do so I can live my dreams. It was at this point in my stream of consciousness that I realized I don't really have many dreams...

This turned out to be quite a startling thought for me. I felt like I had just grown so accustomed to a life of school and schedules and jobs, that I had a hard time answering the question: "What would you do if money was not an issue?" So I have thought about that question a lot lately. And it has been a lot harder than you might think to come up with dreams that matter to me, rather than just stealing other peoples because they sound cool. But I have thought of a few things, and I know I am going to need to make this list longer, but these are some of my dreams that I am going to live... Starting this year.

1. Someday, I want to live in Dominica with Katie, even if it just for a month or two. For those of you who don't know, I am not referring to the Dominican Republic. Dominica is a southern Caribbean island we visited last November, and one of the most beautiful places in the world. They call it "The Nature Island" as well as "The Island of Longevity" because they have one of the highest percentages of people over 100 in the world. They grow everything you have ever heard of and more, and the produce there looks like it is on steroids. Plus, dozens of waterfalls, rivers, beaches, and even a boiling lake. Hurricanes are rare, and there are no deadly animals on the island. Paradise...

2. Learn a martial art. I am not 100% decided on which one, though. This is another one that Katie and I both want to do together. For most of my life I was not a fan of this idea, but recently it has sounded more and more appealing, and I am excited to give it a try.

3. Fencing. Weird, I know. But it is another thing I really want to learn and am excited about. So I will.

4. Travel. This one has always been on my list, and I have various specifics destinations I would like to go to, but I will not bore you with the details of each one. I just want to see and experience as much of the world as I can.

5. Become an [amateur] survivalist. I really want to learn more about this kind of stuff. Not like I ever plan on just marching into the mountains one day to live there indefinitely, but I would like to be able to just in case it was ever necessary, or for a weekend or something. But I think I should throw a disclaimer in there, I do not want to be Bear Grylls and learn how to survive in any environment in the world and eat camel dung or whatever. Just be able to live in the mountains like that crazy guy in southern Utah. Except without all of the felonies...

6. Rock Climbing, this could kind of be paired with the last one, since it could be described as a survivalist skill, but I figure I would learn them from different places.

7. Kayaking. I feel like I might like this one, I pretty much need to give it a try and then see if it really is one of my dreams to get god at it, I have it on here as a potential dream.

8. Become a hot-air balloon pilot. Yeah, I pretty much can't think of many things that would be cooler than owning and piloting my own hot-air balloon.

9. Write a book. I am not sure what on, how long, or even what genre... I just want to.

10. This last one is no secret or revelation, I have dreamed of being a successful entrepreneur for years, and in fact I view it as the dream that makes the others possible. For this reason it should probably have been first, but it seemed rather poetic to have the last be the first, so I kept it the way it is.

Well, that looks like a good start to me. I am going to take a lighter class load in the fall and sign up for either martial arts or fencing lessons, and have somewhat of a "mini-retirement." Except without the travel. (Unless of course you count the cruise I will go on in November) So there you have it, and more importantly, there I have it. This is mostly a post for me. One to help me get my thoughts down in writing and give some clarity to them. If you have any dreams, fulfilled or not, comment them below. It might help me get some more inspiration...

On Being Extraordinary

It has been almost exactly one year since I last posted. That is incredible to me. Anyway, there are many reasons why I stopped, and life ceasing to be interesting or noteworthy are not things I would list among those reasons. Maybe if this new found desire to resurrect the blog lasts beyond tonight I will write about many of the things that I have done and experienced in the last 12 months. (As if anyone reading this wouldn't already know anyway) But I digress from the point.

The point is not the many reasons why I stopped. It is the one reason I started this blog back up. That reason is multifaceted but it basically boils down to a friend I made in one (well, two actually) of my classes this semester. His name is Jeff, and it was his appearance in a Youtube video that got me thinking about people (like him) who are truly extraordinary.

I don't think there are many of us that want to be ordinary, although I would hypothesize that most people have just accepted that they are not and will never be truly extraordinary. I am at this moment, battling with myself, trying with all my mental strength to not join that group of individuals, the ones who have accepted ordinaryness, and it is proving much more difficult than usual.

My friend Jeff is in two leisure classes with me. (These are classes based on the concept of leisure, they are not easy, leisurely classes) Because of the subject matter of these classes, Jeff gets regular opportunities to talk about what he likes to do for leisure and recreation, just as we all do. He likes rock climbing, canyoneering, that kind of stuff. But not just like most people like it, and certainly not just how I like it. He REALLY likes it, and he does some incredible things. One day in class he talked about a particularly long and difficult climb he did, and said that he enjoyed the satisfaction of having been one of only a few dozen people to have ever finished the route he had. But then I was watching Youtube videos today, and saw the following video...



Awesome, right? Beautiful views, cool people, fun music, and great camera work. This is the kind of video I really admire, the kind that makes life look even more fun than it is in reality. As some of you may know, it was a video that inspired me to start this blog in the first place. I knew I would never meet the maker of that video, he was just some Asian dude who could really dance and visited lots of cool places. I considered him extraordinary because of his travels, and was inspired by the video. This new video is different. When I saw Jeff in the the behind the scenes part, something hit me. Something like: Here is this kid, a few years younger than me, at the same school, and he is part of something so extraordinarily cool, and here I am, just watching videos of it. That is when I realized that I am no longer just a kid who watches other people older than him do remarkable things, people are my age and already extraordinary, and not just people who live hundreds of miles away or in much different circumstances than me. I met one. And he is not a whole lot different than me.

Anyway, this post is not much more than just rambling. I don't know exactly what makes someone extraordinary, nor do I know if people who I think are, consider themselves to be. In fighting this battle against myself, trying to make myself believe that I am, or at least still can be extraordinary, and live a life free of boredom and outside the mundane, I have done a lot of reflecting. I am not yet convinced of my extraordinarity. Too many people have done the same things I have. I am not sure exactly where the cutoff line is, exactly. I just know that I have not crossed to the other side of it yet...

Perhaps if only a few others have done what you have, you are extraordinary. Perhaps only a few dozen people, or maybe even a hundred. If 101 people have done it, does it lose its uniqueness? I am not sure. Surely many people have climbed Everest, and few would call those people ordinary, but the more people do it, the less exciting it becomes. I figure that as more and more people put forth this effort, that they will in turn raise the bar for those who follow, working harder and accomplishing feats and setting new records. If I figure correctly, the more time passes, the harder it is to be noticed. Soon you have to be that guy who climbed Everest blind, in order to even be noticed. Marathons, too, used to mean something, but now tons of people have done them, and people are less and less impressed by them, the same goes for triathlons. Although, I would not yet consider those who finish an Ironman ordinary...

But then, maybe there is no "maximum occupancy" and everyone can be extraordinary. Maybe it is not the sheer number of people who have become extraordinary, typified by those who can confidently declare: "I walked on the moon." Perhaps what really makes someone extraordinary is that they have done something that requires extraordinary effort. This may often be associated with small numbers of people because so few of us are willing to stretch ourselves that far outside our comfort zone.

Okay, well that is enough rambling for tonight. I may return to this subject more in the future, and I will consider what I can do to join the ranks of those who's lives are worth talking about. In the mean time comment and let me know your thoughts on the matter. But please, don't try to tell me how special and extraordinary I am, this post was not intended so that I could get pandered to. Until next time, which is hopefully sooner than February 2013...