There’s something scary yet exciting about uprooting yourself and moving to a place where no one knows of your existence. Not one person knows your name. Slowly but surely, you make your world a little bit bigger and expand your horizons a bit more. No doubt it was terrifying when I first did it five years ago, but I’m so glad I did. I can’t wait until I can get the chance to do it again. 

I've cut back on my technology use. I think that our smartphones, and social media in general really consumes a lot of our time, and more of my time than I'd like it to. Smartphones have literally become attached to us like another limb. Many times I've watched people at restaurants have periods of silence with a table full of people because they're all busy on their devices.

 It's easy find out about someone's life happenings even when I'm not directly looking for it. It's all too much digital noise. I've stopped carrying around my phone at work for a few weeks now and I feel so much lighter without it. I unplugged a bit. Not completely, but enough so that I can breathe...and it feels great.


I dare you to look up from your phone.

I like noticing people’s quirks. I like seeing the different things that makes their eyes light up. I enjoy noticing how they laugh, and the gestures they use when they're nervous. It’s the oddities that they find beauty in that you never noticed before. And when they are absolutely comfortable with their weirdness, it makes you want to be friends with them forever because of how fascinating they are as individuals. Most of all, it makes you realize that your own quirks are pretty awesome as well. 

Don't worry about what anyone else is doing or what they're telling you to make yourself feel bad. Worry about you, and think about your own goals. Sometimes our dreams are not unrealistic, but our timeline of how things will turn out is. Ignore the backlash. Once it all turns out right everyone will then go back on their words and finally understand. And if they don't...well you don't need to impress everyone in the world anyways. Just prove it to yourself.

Today my friend brought up a question that I have never been asked before. She asked me, "What career path would you choose if money weren't involved?" The first thing that came to mind was that I would still want to be involved in healthcare except it would be more specific, such as working in a clinic in a third world country. Then I said I wanted to be like Andrew Zimmerman, someone who just traveled the world trying foods of many different cultures. Afterwards I said another option was to be able to use art in my career if money wasn't involved, for example being an art teacher. I thought my answers said a lot about myself in terms of the things I believe are important for me to feel complete: Helping others, traveling, and art. I think we should all really think about this question once in a while to ensure that we would still love what we do even if weren't paid for it.

So, what career path would you choose if money weren't involved?