Time for a blog! I have to admit this one's as much for my own benefit as it is to share. Needed to do some writing to kind of organize my thoughts.
Living here in Dulan has been great. My chinese has improved, I've made great new friends and really just had an amazing time. I could go into every little adventure, but then what stories would I have to share with you all in person? (Which is the real fun anyway.) In a few days I will leave to wander Taiwan for a week spending time visiting and getting to know cool people I've met the past couple months. Hopefully my budget survives the adventure...
Either way, I'm not really writing this blog to look back, but to look ahead. I have so many opportunities popping up and ideas in my head, I really need to put them all down.
Getting back to the states, while in the LA area I hope to visit both family and friends and I really want to make it to the Tempest freerunning academy for a workout. If you haven't heard of it, search on youtube and check out their promo, it's amazing. A good surf session before going back to the desert would be great too. I am honestly nervous about not living near the ocean anymore. All this in three or four days before I have to get back to Albuquerque for a big lion dance/kung fu performance and my brother's 21st birthday.
The fun doesn't stop there by any stretch... The week after I get back, I'm off to Denver for a national parkour jam, and the Apex invitational parkour/freerunning competition. That will be a blast, and I can't wait to hangout with all my freerunning family.
After that, I'm organizing several formal training sessions every week for martial arts, parkour, and weapon work. I'll be really stepping up my training regimen and I plan to have some company. Along with that, I am in the process of organizing an informal association of martial arts students of all disciplines in Albuquerque, to promote community outside of competition. Martial artists should really be working together and sharing, not isolated in the islands of martial arts schools you find now. Especially for those students committed to reaching the highest levels of skill in the long-term, I think that this is vital.
In the next couple months, somewhere squeezed between earning the basic amount of money my chosen lifestyle requires, I also have some other major travels planned. In September I will be running the Duke City marathon, but earlier in that same month I've got the opportunity to visit a very good friend who will be in Hawaii, and staying there while she's there will be much more affordable than it would normally ever be... So maybe a week in Hawaii? Let's hope a cheap plane ticket materializes.
... Because I also really want to visit my friends down in Mexico sometime this fall. Guadalajara, Zacatecas, and Villahermosa are very much in my thoughts and I already feel I've let too much time pass since I've visited. Money to get down there is the only serious issue, that coupled with keeping any work that I manage to get despite these various plans.
If you're seeing a trend towards travel and seizing any idea/opportunity that comes to me, good. I've reached a point where I really see the sort of life I want. I have clear goals and I really believe I can achieve them. The path I'm envisioning will require as much hard work and sacrafice as the happiness it promises me. I think, having found the life I want to work to have, it is not any more difficult to achieve in principle than any other happy life. What I may sacrafice in stability and future "security"(as if the future were ever secure) for a chance to really take advantage of my youthful years, make the most of myself and gain all the education of experience that can be gained no other way.
The adventure ahead is intimidating so I can understand if you think I'm a little crazy. The truth is these aren't even half the plans I've got cooking. Give me a little faith, when it's all said and done, it'll make for a book you'll actually want to read.
No comments:
Post a Comment