The year is 3028.

“Grandma!” My granddaughter comes running up to my holographic knitting table. (It may be far in the future, but knitting will forever be a relevant old lady activity.)

“Oh,” my frail voice calls to the child, “yes dear?”

“Do you remember when you used to write blogs!”

I freeze at the remembrance of my old hobby. The rush of memories of creativity pouring from the pad of my fingers all comes back to me. I stare longingly out of the window, overlooking the flying buildings and floating land masses we all live on – again, in the future.

“Why ‘blogging’ – I haven’t heard of that in so, so long.”

•••

Wow, that was a super roundabout way to mention that I have been gone for a while. In all honesty, I could go on and on about how I had ‘finals’ and was trying to get a ‘real job’, or bring up my ‘summer classes’, but we all know the truth. I got lazy. I’m human you can’t blame me. You think sitting down and hashing out an 800(ish) word blog post is easy? Well, it is a bit easy, but so is sleeping or watching YouTube.

So what have I been up to? Well I completed my first year of college (barely), I got my first real job (thanks mom) and I signed up for summer classes (hate you math). Other than that my summer days have been filled with resting, relaxing and staring blankly at a computer screen for hours on end. You may be wondering to yourself why I don’t go out and see the town! Well, there is a part of me that would love to do that. Sadly, there is an even bigger part of me that weights the equivalence of an elephant. The part that has lived in the same town my entire life and is too comfortable in the familiarity. That part is the part that makes me feel like I am constantly running in circles.

Like I am stuck.

I feel like it is a basic human thing to feel stuck or feel like a dog on a leash, or any other metaphor. Maybe it was the gratuitous amounts of freedom I felt in college and then the sudden lack of that in being back in the same town I have lived in forever. Maybe I am just missing the trill of travel. Regardless this is the type of wanderlust feeling that makes me want to pack up my lizard and hit the road once again. Destination? No idea. Budget? I have like $5. Housing? I can figure it out!

It is that sense of blind excitement that has me wanting to work and save up so I can go and someday, maybe, actually go and live that type of life. The longest wait, however, is this weight of just working on the goal without actually being there. There is a difference between working going on a road trip and planning it. The act is adventurous, exciting, you never know what is going to happen next and it excites you and terrifies you at the same time. Before you put the key in the ignition however, comes the planning. It is the saving up for months, years. It is the reading of articles and blog posts of people who are where you dream to be. While the research is important, sometimes it can kill you that you just can’t be there yet. It aches that you can’t just skip to the part where you wake up on the beach, in the city or in the countryside you so desperately long for.

While you wait and work for the plans to fall into place, it can be such a strange situation. You know you are moving toward the goal, but the progress is slow and hard at times. It feels like you are walking through quicksand, or against a tornado. It feels like you have super glue stuck to the soles of your shoes and you just can’t scrape it off. In your heart, however, you just have to know that you can get there. You can reach the goal you are so desperate for, it just takes time.

The time it takes can seem daunting, even dangerous. What if your plans change? What if an accident happens? What if you become unable to later? These “what ifs” will always haunt you, but that never means you need to rush into the plans right away. When you become faced with those “what ifs” you need to remember to stick to the plan you have in place and know that the outcome will be beyond worth it.

There may be a possibility I am writing this post for more of a way to shake my own shoulders and scream “Wait! Plan! Patience!” into my own face, but really whose to say.

Thank you for taking the time to read my post! If you feel like it make sure you share or like.

– Gracie Ella