thoughts from places: beyond kansas

This morning before my dad and I went to the shooting range we got in his truck and headed down to Wellington to the court house where I registered to vote I can't believe I'm old enough to stuff like this now.  We didn't take the Kansas Turnpike, mostly because my dad hates the new roundabouts they put in on the Mulvane exit for the casino, instead we took Broadway all the way down and back again.

I've ridden many car rides and even driven several times the stretch on Broadway from K-53/Patriot Guard Highway down to Wellington.  The scenery hasn't changed much over the years with the exception of the big ass casino that's been put in on the corner where Broadway and K-53 intersect, the houses haven't changed, the small airport hasn't changed, it all looks the same.

As I sat there in the passenger seat and looked out to the west I kept imagining what it'd be like to travel outside of Kansas on my own.  I've already been planning my dream summer where I'm going to go to all the special places in Kansas I've been meaning to go to, like Abeliene to the Eisenhower museum, or back to Hutchinson to the Salt Mines and the Space Museum.  All I've ever known traveling wise is the lower half of the midwest and a little portion of the west coast; all of this traveling has been done with my parents.  It's just weird for me to think about traveling now, seeing as I turn eighteen in a short few days time and graduation a few months away, there's no one holding me back after that.

I had a dream a few nights ago, I was at our family reunion sitting around with all my cousins and uncles and aunts.  I think I was a couple years out of college at the time.  They were asking me where I was living and what I was doing, if I was dating anyone; the typical questions that are brought up at family reunions.  I continued to tell them that I was just a nomad. That I wasn't settling down in one place, I was traveling the country and seeing everything it had.

It's almost scary thinking that in less than a year's time I could just set out and travel and never really settle down or anything.  It's extremely tempting to get a job this summer and work for a few months, saving up money and take a year off before going to SC.  Though I don't think I would ever actually do it, mostly because my mom would kill me before I take a year off after high school before going to college; plus, I think I might enjoy it too much to the point where I wouldn't want to come back and go to college.

The things that I do know are this: I'm going to keep dreaming of traveling America, I'm going to work my ass off and live life to the fullest.  Maybe one day I'll get to explore every nook and corner of America and then some, maybe I'll settle down some where that I least expected it. Who knows? Wherever God takes me this year and in the future I'm willing to follow.

Link of the day: The Bullet Stop I'm sorry, this probably appeals to less than one percent of you, but I just had to share it anyways.  I love this place, the guys are so friendly and easy to talk to.  The only bad thing is that their gun smith is usually out on the days we go in to shoot.

days until Senior Year Part 2 begins: 1
days until I become an adult: 4
days until graduation: 136

BEDD 5: traveling America

I'm sure that I've mentioned this before, that I want to travel through all 50 states in the United States and our territories.  I want to do this even more since I've narrowed down my options on my major for next year.  I've decided that out of all the history of the world, I want to study that of my favorite country and the one that I call home.

I find wars extremely interesting, although many believe that the wars and conflicts that we have been in through the years shouldn't be spoken of, I completely disagree. I believe the extreme opposite. We should learn everything we can about the wars we've been directly and indirectly apart of, including the views of others in other countries on the war in question.

The most interesting wars I find, which is difficult for me to pinpoint because of them are completely different in many senses, is the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.  Both of these I automatically think of when I think of my future plans to travel through all 50 states and territories.  Without the Revolutionary War (and Civil War) we wouldn't be the country that we are today, and we wouldn't have any significance to places on the east coast where so many people lost their lives.

Anyway, back on track. There for a bit, I was considering of deleting this blog. I don't really know why, but I was strongly considering it.  But then when I began to think about the conversations I've had with my brother about traveling during and after college and university, I decided not to delete it after all.

Bit of a ramble, and not really completely finished with in thoughts, but I think this is all my brain can handle for now, I'll continue on Saturday maybe...

Link of the day: Wayne Moran Photography is just awesome. I don't even know how I found such awesomeness, but I did. I am just in love with this photography I could probably spend all night just drooling over these photos.

days until ACT round 2: 5
days until I become an adult: 34
days until graduation: 166

10DYC: seven wants

Preface: as per normal, these are in no specific order.

1. Spend Time With Family

Our family is actually quite large if you count all of the cousins, and there are a lot of the great uncles and aunts who are getting into their older years, and I really want to spend time with them all because as I've learned a couple of years ago, you may never see them again and tell them how much you love and appreciate them.

2. Good Health

I want to continue to be healthy, hip replacement aside, I'm pretty healthy; and I hope that continues so I can continue to live life to it's fullest.

3.  To Travel The World

There are so many places I want to travel to that it'd just be easier to say I want to travel the world, which is actually quite accurate in many senses.  Some specific places include but are not limited to: London, Zambia, Moscow, Copenhagen, Greece, Scotland, Germany and Hawaii.

4. Make Something Of My YouTube Channel

As of now, my YouTube channel has no uploaded videos on it. I'm wanting to get some content up within the next year because as internet based as I can be at times, I think I could really enjoy YouTube from a vlogging standpoint and not just be a "watcher".

5. Laugh Often And Be Happy In General

I want to be in general happy with myself and life; and to laugh often because it usually leads to me being happy.

6. Go Fishing Whenever

Practicallity of this one? Hardly. But seeing as fishing keeps me calm, I'd love to go fishing whenever I wanted/needed to.

7. Acquire PhD In History

This has definitely been a goal for about a year now, I love history so much that I can see myself devoting most of my life to research.  Among all things that come with a doctorate in history, I just want to be able to express the importance of history to younger generations so they can appreciate life more.

Today is awesome because: it's been raining most of the day, and it's basically been raining for three days now. I'm in such a good mood right now, mostly to do with the weather status.

days until ACT: 33

days until the fall musical: 57

days until I become an adult: 111

days until graduation: 242

10DYC: nine loves

Preface: these are in no specific order.

1. family: I have absolutely no idea what I would do without my family, and by family I mean my parents, brother, and all extended family including the uncountable cousins and aunts and uncles.

2. fishing: my biggest stress reliever and an activity/hobby that I really enjoy.

3. books: they offer so much but yet so many people don't give books and reading enough credit.

4. writing: I've never really been into keeping a steady writing project going, with the exception of BEDA which surprised me, but there's something about writing in general that makes me calm.

5. nature: If I hadn't gotten so adjusted to living with so much technology I would love to live in a basic house structure out in the country and just take in everything that nature has to offer.  It's so beautiful but yet it gets such harsh treatment.

6. traveling: I haven't been to too many places, but then when I stop and think about the opportunities I've had and really consider myself lucky.  I've been all over my home state of Kansas (which I love so dearly) and several of the states in the mid-west, plus several parts of California.  There's something about traveling and seeing new places that really makes life interesting and fun.

7. Harry Potter: as nerdy as this is, it is indeed on my list.  Having grown up with the Harry Potter series for the majority of my life, the series has helped me through so many things.

8.  Theatre: there's something about being apart of a show that I really enjoy. I love seeing everyone's hard work be put together and show cased on show nights. Some of my most memorable experiences are from my work in theatre.

9. YouTube: there's just so much to YouTube that makes it awesome, and so lovable.  I specifically love how different everyone is and how much inspiration is spread around.

Today was awesome because: my dad took Marcella and I fishing.

days until the fall musical: 42

days until I become an adult: 124

days until graduation: 257

BEDA 8: bucket list, part one

Since nothing remotely exciting happened today, I thought I'd share some items from my bucket list and kind of explain them a bit.

• learn how to swim: I once knew how to swim, it was quite a long time ago.  But when things went down hill when I was eight with my hip, I just couldn't swim because my hip and muscles surrounding my hip wouldn't allow it.  But now, after having my hip replaced, I want to learn how to swim because A) it's a good physical therapy tool and B) I have this weird phobia of water.  I have no problem getting into the lake, as long as my feet can touch and my head still be above water.  Same goes for pools.  I for the first time in June got into a paddle boat with my best friends, I did it because I wanted to fish, and because I needed to conquer the fear that I felt I was going to get tipped over and drown. It's quite hard to explain, but I just really want to learn how to swim so I can conquer this weird phobia and enjoy life even more.
• learn how to ride a bike: this one is actually in progress, my best friend who conveniently lives right down the street, started teaching me how to ride a bike earlier this summer.  I have full faith that I can do it, it's just my hip muscles aren't used to the motions and my balance is still quite off since surgery.  I can't even remember exactly for sure or not if I could ride a bike...
• travel through/to all 50 states in the U.S.: I seriously love this country so terribly much.  Besides enjoying to travel, I want to be able to see all of our country in it's righteous state.  It's just not the same looking at photos or videos of places then actually being there yourself in person and seeing it for yourself.
• be a published author: I don't think I'll ever really have a career in life as an author, but with my love of history, it'd be really neat to have just one book published of mine that I could feel proud of.  Even if it's one of those books that teachers assign to students and they end up hating every last page of it.  I think it'd be rather interesting to see the process behind it all.
• compete in a fishing tournament: I love to watch fishing tournaments, because I love fishing, obviously.  And I'd love to give a tournament a go, but only once I really learn some more of the sport. I do it just for fun, not as an actual sport.  It's just something I've always wanted to do, and something that wouldn't take any protests from any of my family.

I've never actually sat down and add on things to my bucket list...because I don't have a written copy of it.  It's all basically in my head.  And there's plenty more to the list, maybe to share another BEDA day when nothing exciting has happened.

Until tomorrow.

days until graduation: 284

BEDA 2: of car dancing, airports and ice cream

This evening I hadn't really planned on anything but just cleaning my room and having dinner with my mom, a typical evening. But me being me, I went and found something spontaneous to do with my friends that just happened to be going to Wichita to the airport to pick up one of our friends that has been in Florida for the entire summer.  My mom wasn't pleased about this plan when I only gave her less than a hour's notice that I was going to Wichita with my friends. I don't think she would have been irritated with it if I hadn't been randomly roped into going to Wichita yesterday with my best friend to the mall and then proceeded to hang out with him all evening until ten.  She got it over it though and let me go, it seems like she understands that summer is coming to an end, and that I've spent most of it at home, doing nothing relatively productive.

Anyway, so my friends came and picked me up and we headed to Wichita. The scariest part about this little adventure we went on was the fact that nearly EVERYONE knows that I'm horrible with directions...and I managed to get us to the airport with absolutely no problems. Let me tell you, I feel extremely accomplished and probably a little too proud of myself.  I mean, considering I was sitting in the backseat dancing the entire time, I'm surprised we ended up in the right place.

The last time I was at the airport, was I want to say about six years ago when we went to pick my brother up when he first got to come after he got back from Iraq.  So I wasn't sure what to expect out of the airport, especially considering there were so many freaking orange construction cones and signs that kept getting in our way.  But really, once we got inside it didn't look like a single thing changed. Except maybe they have better carpet then I remember, but that's not the point.

The most uncertain thing of the evening was we had absolutely no idea what flight our friend Kayla was on, so we didn't really know how long we were going to be waiting for.  But it was alright, between people watching and joking around with my three other friends it was a good wait for Kayla's plane to land.  I kept talking about how much I wanted to go through airport security just to see what my hip implant does to the metal detectors.  I mean, it's not completely metal, but I bet at least 3/4 of it is and it's bound to set of the metal detectors.  But we all decided I wouldn't try it today because even though I had all the appriate cards to hand over they were busier than normal and I didn't want to get in trouble for not having a ticket and trying to get through.

Eventually though, we figured out Kayla's plane was the one coming from Houston and it was a joyous event when we saw her coming down the hall past security.  I'm most positive that EVERYONE who was waiting for people off of the Houston plane was staring at us because, let's be honest, my friends and I are nerds and don't mind being crazy in public.

Kayla was hungry so we decided to go to McDonalds down the road from the airport so she could eat and the rest of us could have ice cream, though I opted out of actually getting ice cream because I had too much of it last night.  We get to McDonalds and it was busy and of course, there was even more construction going on there, so we just ended up at Wendy's across the street instead where we just sat around and hung out talking about our summers and listening to Kayla's adventures in Florida.

Eventually though, as fun it was, we had to head home and we piled back into the car and then the pressure was on me again to get us back to town and not get lost.  I successfully did my job once again, though with less dancing.

Sitting at the airport with my friends really made me think about that itch I have about traveling when I get into college.  I told my friend Rachel while we were people watching that I wanted to go to the desk and tell me to put me on the cheapest flight out of Kansas just to go some where and have an adventure.  But considering I had only a pair of sunglasses, no money and my wallet full of my identification cards for my hip, I decided I wouldn't do it...plus I don't think they would have allowed it considering I'm still seventeen.  But it was a good thought, I can't wait for the day when I can take an adventure some where without any plans what so ever and just see where God takes me.