The Path to Change

    Traveling this far has made me realize more than ever that I was landlocked in a flat prison for 20-something years. Those few times I traveled outside of the upper Midwest—Colima Bay, Mexico; Disney World, FL; Colorado; Arizona; Oregon—they all had a common theme: eyes glued to the plane/car window, “WOAH!” As I’ve been driving through the hills of the Appalachians, my heart fills with fascination and appreciation and often accompanied with a dorky grin on my face.  The most recent place I stopped to explore was in Olive Hill, Kentucky. I saw a sign for “Carter Caves State Park” and at first read it as “crater caves,” so that got me super excited. But alas, it was only caves and other awesome natural phenomena! Unfortunately I couldn’t explore the big caves because I was a solo traveler, but I did get to hike around the area and see natural bridges and mini caves. And boy, were they incredible. Photographs don’t do it justice, but I’ve posted a few at the bottom. I even got to dig through rocks and find fossils and gems; you can imagine my excitement.

    Throughout this trip (and even before this, my life in general) I’ve been relating my experiences to being in a video game. I remember running around in The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim game excited to see the digitally rendered landscapes and skies, interacting with people where I get to choose my actions based on the personality of the character I created, harvesting random ingredients to make potions, exploring and “clearing” areas of quests and enemies. At this point in my life though, I don’t need to boot up a computer and sit in a stuffy room to experience those things. I can simply go outside and see the beauty of our planet earth! Our very own Skyrim! This sounds obvious and people who haven’t played video games of that genre may not appreciate the connection. But it truly is wonderful to go from seeing something in a virtual reality—tasks you’ve tested and mastered in a controlled environment—and then go out and do it all in reality. “Can I climb this cliff? What if I don’t roll high enough?”  in Dungeons and Dragons terms translates to, “What are the chances that I succeed and consequences if I fail?” Those who haven’t engaged in role playing games probably don’t need a game to tell them that they could very well break a leg if they slipped, but I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’ve seen virtually firsthand what results of success and failure in these environments and I’ve learned to know my limits. Things might be different if I had explored more of reality when I was younger, but the flat land of South Dakota wasn’t much to appreciate. I resorted to climbing trees and testing my limits on a bicycle or in a lake, but I didn’t have many opportunities to explore caves and mountains and cliffs and complex social interactions. Video games sucked away many hours of my life, but how could I do what I’m doing in reality now when I was stuck in school and couldn’t up and travel for a week? I don’t plan on having children of my own, but on the off chance it happens, I am going to homeschool that child and take them anywhere they want to explore; learn as we go. Above all, I’d love to do that with my many nieces and nephews. I hope I can provide opportunities that their parents might not be able to so that they may talk to strangers and see this beautiful world.

Butterflies are fascinating creatures. Seriously, nature...what's up with metamorphosis?!

Now all I need is a blue mountain flower and a rock warbler egg to level up my alchemy and restore my HP!

Under the natural bridge... why can't this be my home?

Unfortunately, immediately after this picture, this little buddy fell off my hand and plummeted to its death. I cried. And now have learned my lesson about taking selfies with creatures.

Echo! .....echo! .....echo!   

Why on earth would you want to fast travel in reality?

Remember, peace is within you already, you just have to want it.
☮ & ♡, beautiful minds.