Friends! Family! Random internet people who have accidentally stumbled upon this blog! Greetings and salutations!
Since you are reading this, you must have some sort of interest in my life. Perhaps you are a schoolfriend, or a relative, or one of my mother's many wonderful coworkers. Some of you have known me my whole life; others, perhaps only a few months. I'm fairly confident, though, that no matter how short an acquaintance we have shared, you have some idea of my (colorful, lively, odd) character and (sarcastic, witty, more-than-occasionally immature) personality. So I hope you will bear with me in this first blog post, which may be awkward and stilted, because I certainly hope future posts will make for worthwhile reading.
After graduating from Lawrence University in Appleton this past June, I've had numerous people ask me questions along the lines of, "What are your plans now?" Almost without exception, my cheerful and slightly defensive answer has been, "I have no idea! Isn't that exciting?"
Depending on who I'm talking to, my nonchalant attitude towards my future can be confusing, and more than a little worrisome.
How could you not know what you're doing after college?! You need to get a career path going! Or grad school! Or both! Otherwise you're ruining your life!
Other people have (I think) a more measured response.
Oh, so you're going to take a bit of time and figure out what you want from life? That actually sounds like an interesting idea!
Regardless of whether my lack-of-a-plan is a good idea or a bad one, it's all I've got at the moment. And I do intend it to be fun, and productive, and mature – if I wanted to bum around and let my expensive liberal arts education go to waste, I'd move to Los Angeles!
(I did warn you this post would be awkward and stilted.)
Anyway. Yes, I am very happy to have successfully graduated cum laude from Lawrence University with a major in English and a minor in Russian.* No, I don't plan on immediately starting a career in either of those fields. Yes, I will of course eventually have a job, an apartment, and probably a fish tank (all symbols of successful, mature, real-life adult people, y'see). No, I don't care to jump headlong into post-graduation life without taking a damn break first.
I've just spent a thoroughly wonderful four years filling my life with wonderful professors, challenging studies, and fulfilling extracurriculars, and as much as I'd love to just keep doing that forever . . . I really need a break from real life for a bit.
But how will you take this break, Julia? I imagine you to ask, friend reader. How will you fill your time between college and the next stage of your life?
[cue the Big Reveal]
I'm going on a road trip! And it's going to be HUGE.
Starting early this September, ideally in the first few days of the month, I will be leaving my current location of Appleton, Wisconsin, and beginning a veritable Odyssey of an adventure.
My goal: to drive through the 48 contiguous United States (as well as potentially Alaska and parts of Canada, eh?) on one continuous route** and visit as many neat places and people as I can.***
But why?
I've got family spread across the country, not to mention the many many friends from school and other places who have asked me to visit, and there's also just a lot of touristy places in America that I'd like to see first-hand. And because, as yet, I have no obligations in terms of "job" or "place to live" – again, don't worry, these will come in time!
With all that in mind, I'm going to be documenting my travels here on this blog! That way, not only will I have a travelogue to save for posterity, but I'll be able to communicate regularly with the large number of people who have asked to be kept in the loop about my life. (Plus, all the cool kids have blogs these days.)
I'm going to try and keep this as up-to-date as possible while I'm traveling, including a snazzy little map which will have my "trip so far" route on it in case anyone's interested. Theoretically, I will start the first leg of this trip in about a week (I've set myself the arbitrary date of early September), and from that point I'll be using this blog to share my travels with all you wonderful people. Assuming you stick around and check it out!
So yeah! Roadtrip! Fun!
Huge thanks to everyone who has supported me in my life so far – I love and appreciate you all and hope you will continue to enjoy hearing about my adventures as they unfold.
From Appleton, WI . . .
Julia
*Shameless self-congratulation! Woo!
**Which will not have to happen over a continuous amount of time – I fully plan on taking some kind of break to visit family for Christmas, and reserve the right to get distracted in the middle of this trip for a short amount of time before resuming wherever I left off.
***
If I make it through this route and still have some money left, I'll probably treat myself to a flight to Hawaii to complete the set.
