Ok, so I know I said I’d finish writing about Monterey, that I’d write about my recent camping trip to Big Sur, and that I’d keep working on more posts continuing my adventures in Australia. But before all that I’d like to take a quick detour and just muse a little in your prescence, if I may.
I had an amazing weekend in Big Sur. I always go camping every Labor Day weekend with the same group of friends, and this trips are always incredible, but something about Big Sur in particular really got me. I don’t know if it was just the beauty of the place, or some feeling I was picking up in the air, but I was profoundly happy to be there. Now that I’m back, I’m just as profoundly depressed that I’m home again.
It’s not that I don’t like my home surroundings. I too live in a beautiful and fascinating place. But there is something about traveling that gets under my skin, and this bipolar cycle of elation and depression that feeds my soul and keeps me wanting more. I know that it’s perfectly normal to be out of it after coming back from a long trip to far away places, but depressed after four days to a place just 3 hours away? Travel is a drug, and I am an addict.
One of the things that I really dug about Big Sur was that being there allowed me to do some thinking. Lately I’ve been trying to figure out what I really want to do with my life. I think I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m really not sure, and that’s ok. I do want to keep working towards something larger, keep challenging myself and nurturing my passions and creativity. One of the problems with trying to figure out what I want to do is that I have a lot of passions, most of which I’m reasonably good at, so I have a hard time picking just one thing to devote time to. Besides traveling and writing I do makeup, sew, draw, and watch a lot of movies. I have at various times done makeup, costumes, sound and lights for theater and student films, and actually have a degree to do these things. I have played bass in an electronic rock band and attempted to teach myself ukulele. I have been to Australia, Europe, and Israel, as well as various places around the good ol’ USA. And with all of that life accomplishment I still work retail. Some days I’m very ok with this, other days not so much.
Thanks for letting me get these thoughts out and sharing with you. Thinking is a dangerous pastime, I know. What about you? What things are you uncontrollably passionate about? What do you do that keeps you going and feeds your soul?
Good Luck and Happy Travels,
Mo
A Stranger In Paradise 
Mo I totally feel you!! I am so sad to not be at our little campsite overlooking the ocean right now… To answer your question and hopefully spark some other comments: I am totally passionate about a lot of things, which, like you, gets me into a lot of trouble sometimes. Its so easy to get sidetracked. I have to say that at the moment I’m on a writing kick. What feeds my soul? Friends, soul-finding adventures, and day dreams that one day I will be where I want to be.
Oh my god Jill you’ve read my mind! I am all that great stuff that you just said. Here’s to one day figuring it out together!
Yes indeed!!! You know we’re just waiting for the right moment so we can bask in achievement together… right…? :p
Mo, with all your interests, passions and creativity I’m guessing that you’ll end up having several careers in your lifetime and love them all! Writing has always been a common thread in my jobs (and I still love it), but recently a girlfriend and I discovered we both wanted to become “American Pickers.” We are both passionate about old stuff and finding gems to sell!
I do feel like as I go on I become more comfortable with the notion that I can have several careers throughout my lifetime. I love your Etsy shop by the way! So it seems you are already on your way to bein’ a picker!
Thanks Mo…my problem is that I’m finding too many things I want to keep!!
Hey Mo, great post!
It feels like you’re speaking to me, too, in that “wanting to find the right vocation to match all my avocations” way. I think you’re right about continuing to cultivate various skills and interests without needing to tether oneself to just one. It’s simultaneously liberating and daunting to have a bunch of interests and not have them wholly defining what you do/who you are or at least not in the largest sense of what you do to make money. In the meantime, keep on blogging! I love the gorgeous word pictures you paint of your travels.
Yay thanks Misha! It’s nice to hear the encouragement and know that someone else is on the same page as I am
I recently read somewhere that there is no such thing as “Job Charming”. We need to have a job because we need to have money, any other benefits the job gives us are nice, but not the main reason why we work. I like that because then I can just focus on being a good employee and fulfilling my other needs, like a need for connection, or a sense of purpose with activities outside of work. Anyway, I want to think of my life as more than just a string of achievements and instead focus on relationships and expanding my soul, which doesn’t necessarily have to happen at my current place of employment.
You are so right D! Sometimes it’s just so easy for me to get caught up in the whole career thing. It’s just in my ambitious nature I’m afraid. I just wish it wasn’t too much to ask to be able to do something awesome and get paid to do it 🙂
I think it’s not too much to ask to enjoy what we do for paid employment, but sometimes it can take a while to even figure out what that would look like… I thought working in my field would be great and was all I wanted in a job, but it turns out I get lonely only interacting with a computer 8 out of the 9 hours I’m at work. Now I know I also need human interaction along with using my analytical skills. Live and learn I guess. For now I am doing the best I can, learning as much as I can, and enjoying the time I spend in and out of work as much as I can. One of my favorite quotes is from Abraham Lincoln that says “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be” because it reminds me that my perceptions make up the way I view the world. It can take time to change things outside of me, but I can change my perceptions practically instantly.