Untitled
10 months ago
I just don’t want to look back in thirty years and be disappointed.
How to live an unconventional life
It made me
fulfilled 
"I took two years off, after an unfulfilling traditional job, to travel and follow my dreams."
How I did it: Two years after college, unhappy with my traditional, full-time, permanent job, I decided to make some changes. I quit the job, and thought about what I really wanted to do with my life. Even though I did not have one particular thing in mind, I knew that I had a lot of life goals, and that with the money I had saved through this past job, I could accomplish some of them. I spent the next two years doing all kinds of things, some that I had dreamed of, some that were new dreams and goals.
My accomplishments included:
- traveling to and volunteering in India and Nepal
- working and teaching on an organic farm for ten months
- traveling to California to visit old friends
- volunteering at a yoga center for a month
- living with my family for a few months at a time, allowing me to spend more time with them, and to save up some money while working in retail
- working a spring at an environmental education center
Those two years were some of the most fulfilling ones of my life. I had always wanted to work in environmental and outdoor education, and finally took that leap. I had wanted to travel to India, and was able to volunteer there for a month after traveling. Had I not stopped to think about my uncertainties with that job, I may never have taken the leap to try out these goals.
Lessons & tips: 1. Save your money! By saving money, you can take time off from work, volunteer, go back to school, get into the arts.
2. Think about what you want to do: What are your life goals? What are your dreams? Which ones are the most immediate?
3. Go with your heart. Do what you've dreamed of doing, not what others want for you.
Resources: Check out The Back Door Guide to Short Term Job Adventures. It's a great book, and they have a website too with all kinds of volunteer and job opportunities. It's a great place to get a jump-start!
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People doing this are also doing these things:
Entries
artwalktalk can taste freedom...Delicious!
...not sure what I mean by this...
14 months ago
...i think I do this in some aspects and then feel like a nut…so I thought I should embrace this and accept myself for doing and thinking differently. Used to just want to be normal and fit into the norm…but that is a relative idea…
I think we either attract or repel at all times. And things in the world around us either attract or repel us. So I find myself attracted to “the less run of the millers” and the more eccentric “push the envelopers”
On the flip side, I am repeled by the same old same old. Variety is the spice of life. I like life extra spicy.
HalfASmalli is going home in two weeks
Untitled
2 years ago
Wow, I thought all the people doing this would be really weird, but after reading your entries, you guys are just like me. :O) (didn’t mean for that to be offensive to anyone) Anyway. I think I have already lived a reasonable unconventional life up until this point, but now I am entering “adulthood” (that sounds so intimidating) and so it will be more up to me to make decisions and be responsible for how I live my life. I like what Travelling Writer says about making lists. I’m not afraid to go out and do it, but having a list sounds like it would give me a good sense of direction and really help motivate me more. I have some small lists of things like this, but I think I will work to expand them.! peace! :O)
Untitled
2 years ago
I guess I have always wanted to do this. But this has never been easy. I constantly have doubts about my decisions and sometimes, people do have good reasons for doing things in a conventional way.
Road Less Traveled
2 years ago
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth
Then took the other as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet, knowing how way leads onto way
I doubted if I should ever come back
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in a wood
And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference
-Robert Frost
Untitled
3 years ago
1. give up tv. (done)
2. ???
i dont have a desire to pick up and live without a house or do anything too drastic. i still want to graduate from high school, go to college, then go live in a jungle with some tribe in africa or somewhere in southeast asia…
but right now, practically, what can i do?
Sidebar snatching again!
3 years ago
okay so its become a dirty rotten little habit of mine now… but here’s what caught my eye:
There are many more people trying to meet the right person than to become the right person.—Gloria Steinhem
this picture courtesy of a little pengiun who led me to an exploding dog:creator of visual narration that soothes my observations, frustrations and contemplations
This is really Easy
3 years ago
Follow your bliss and get rid of your television. You will be so freakin unconventional that everyone around you will seem like they are from Saturn.
For brownie points you could add to that: ride a bike and make your own food.
