My dream is to travel. My purpose for traveling is to explore somewhere new. I read an article recently titled Let’s Stop Pretending Travel is Accessible to Everyone. This article spoke to me in multiple ways. The insecurity I have is that because I’m not traveling, I’m not living life right. I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels this way, but it sometimes can put me in a sad mood because of all the places I still haven’t been to.

Referencing the article, money is a big concern as to why I don’t travel much. My family isn’t upper middle class, so I never went on family vacations. My travel bucket list grows exponentially of places that I would love to see in my lifetime. I have been trying to save to help make these dreams a reality. When you have to budget within your family, traveling becomes very low on your list of priorities.

The second point this article makes is budgeting may not be enough. Time off from work is huge. If you’re lucky, you get paid for being on vacation, but depending on where you work, this might not be feasible. That’s a lot of money to lose for a week of fun. Airfare is also not cheap. I casually glance at flight prices and it always saddens me. Budgeting is a great skill to learn and I wish I could do this to travel the world.

Finally, this article mentions privilege. I’m a white, cis woman. I don’t have to fear that I’m going to not be allowed in a country because I’m trans. I’m also straight, so I don’t have to fear being targeted for being gay. America has come a long way for gay rights, but other countries are so far behind. I’m lucky because I may be safer off in other countries aside from other groups of people.

Instead of shaming someone for not traveling, understand the reasons why they don’t. My biggest advice to combat the travel shaming is to appreciate the little trips (like Chicago SO MUCH FUN! ) and to focus on my small goals like graduating college in a couple months. Traveling is so amazing, I’m just not at a point in my life where I can commit to it.

*I am choosing not to write about the election at this time. I do have a blog post in the works, and I will publish it when I’m ready.*

Last weekend consisted of me working at Caribou while listening to holiday music amidst snowflake decorations. Some customers came up to me slightly annoyed while others were extremely excited. I’m in the latter group because I really enjoy the holidays. The holidays are special to me for a variety of reasons.

Gift Giving! 

The older I get, the more I love buying gifts. I already have a list going for my brother, mom, boyfriend, and a college friend of mine. Receiving gifts is fun too, but giving gifts is x10 times better. I would like to say I’m great at buying gifts because I know the people in my life extremely well. This part of the holidays is certainly fun for me.

Family Bonding 

Since I’m still at college, I don’t see my friends & family back home. This saddens me, but I get to spend a lot of time with them during the holidays. I just talked to my brother a couple days ago on the phone, and we have a gaming night planned with my uncle. As a family, we are all going out to a nice dinner to celebrate my aunt’s birthday in December so I’m happy to spend that quality time with them.

Cooking Winter Meals 

My mom’s homemade chili, tater tot hot dish, and cheesy mashed potatoes are yummy.

This holiday season will be fantastic no matter what. I need this time to unwind from finals and prepare for my final semester at school. I also get to catch up on some much needed gaming and reading. Is there anything in particular that you’re excited for? Are you still feeling that it’s too early for holiday shenanigans?

Happy Halloween! Since it’s the last day of October, I wanted to reflect on the goals I made for this month. I will probably make a separate post for November goals because this post became a little longer than I had originally intended for it to be.

Pass The American College of Sports Medicine Personal Trainer Certification Test 

COMPLETE

I’m so relieved! I took the test on October 19th and I passed with flying colors. This means a lot to me because as soon as I graduate I can apply to be a Personal Trainer in a gym setting. I can also do personal training outside a gym setting and set up a client list. So this is very exciting stuff. Also, this means I didn’t waste $300. . . phew.

Listen to 3 episodes of 3 different podcasts.

Incomplete 😦

I listen to various episodes from two different podcasts. The first podcast I listened to was Panels & Pizza. This podcast takes place in a local MN comic book shop and the host interviews local artists. The other podcast I started listening to was Pop-Queer-is. This podcast talks about different queer identities shown in a pop culture setting. The first episode was about Harley Quinn and her problematic back story which was super interesting. I’m on the episode about trans representation and how problematic some of this content is.

Turn off my phone while I’m at school/work and only scroll for 5 minutes at one time.

Incomplete 😦 

I started playing Disney Emoji Blitz which is a really cute app to pass the time. I also scroll through Instagram way more than I should so I still need to work on this.

Hang My CONvergence Art plus Billie Piper’s signature 

Incomplete 😦 

You know how you have something on your list that you need to buy, but it’s a boring thing to buy so you don’t buy it? That’s how I feel about frames. So I didn’t buy frames for my art, but I might just put some tape on the back of the images and hang them anyway. I want them hung up, I just don’t want to buy frames. Instead I went to Target and bought Snoopy socks.

Read Two Complete Books *graphic novels included* 

COMPLETE

I read Anna and the French Kiss which by the way. . I hated it.  This story was not romantic whatsoever! Anna did some things with St. Clair that were not okay. As someone who has had to bring up cheating in a relationship before, this ruined their whole relationship. I don’t care that Anna had feelings for St. Clair, they shouldn’t have snuggled/slept in the same bed together. C’mon.. -End Rant- I also read I Kill Giants a graphic novel my brother lent me. Finally, I read Crafting with Feminism the crafting book I recently reviewed.

Watch the Luke Cage Series on Netflix. 

COMPLETE 

Luke Cage was so good. It’s great to see a narrative that’s not told by white men because that does happen far too often. All of Marvel’s Netflix shows have been superb and I can’t wait for the Defenders.

October was a fantastic month for me and I hate to see it go. I can’t wait for the Holiday Season as I already started Christmas shopping! I hope everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween!

Last weekend I had the pleasure of driving to the cities to meet up with my best friends. The catch? We were throwing my friend a surprise party! My friend is leaving tomorrow and flying to New Zealand and I still can’t believe it. I’m incredibly happy for her, but I’ll still miss her unique laugh. She was my neighbor for at least a decade and I had known her since I was 3 years old. It’s amazing to still know someone you knew from that young of an age.

Her party was at an Irish brewery/taproom in Uptown. It’s perfect because that’s a place her mom frequently visits and my friend made a comment, “Maybe my mom will be there.” Once we pulled up to the brewery, we showed her to the surprise tap room where everyone just yelled surprise with such an explosive volume. She didn’t know what to say and was just shocked that this happened. What is there to say? It’s hard to put into words how much your friends and family mean to you.

It was great to be able to escape my college stress for a day and see my awesome friends. One of the reasons why I’m eagerly waiting for graduation is because I want to be closer to the Twin Cities. I love the atmosphere, the small businesses, and the people waiting for me. I have one last ode to my friend; have a great time and fly safe! This isn’t goodbye, but a see you later. Hopefully in New Zealand though because I need to see Hobbiton.

This whole week I have been suffering from major writer’s block. I wanted to blog, but I couldn’t think of anything to write about. In my 9:30 AM lecture class, the topic appeared in my mind and that’s my strong desire to travel. Whenever anyone asks where I will be after graduation my initial first thought is on a plane somewhere exploring an unknown area of the U.S or the world. Wanderlust is my new favorite word that accurately summarizes my feelings.

Wanderlust *noun* – A strong desire to travel.

I had a serious discussion in my head about where I would want to go and I decided to share a couple of these future travel plans today.

Universal Studios Orlando, Fl 

There was no doubt that this would be #1 on this list. I’m always going to be a kid at heart and I feel like visiting this theme park is necessary. I have been looking into vacation packages and I’m serious about trying to fly here the summer after I graduate.

Seattle, Washington

Fun fact: I have never seen an ocean. This fact is incredibly sad because I’m sure oceans are really beautiful. The west coast is gorgeous and it’s right along the Pacific Ocean. Driving would be the best way to experience the West Coast even though I’m really impatient on road trips.

London

England is the home to Doctor Who, Sherlock, and James Bond, so of course I want to visit!

New York City Comic Con/A Bigger Con

I really want to go to a bigger convention. Local conventions in MN are my jam, but I would love to see some big names. I don’t have a preference about whether to go to NYCC or SDCC, but I really want to attend one in my life. The only thing that I’m afraid of is that there are so many people. I’m not the hugest fan of crowds, but I wouldn’t want that to stop me from being able to attend.

Japan 

Japanese culture is really different from the U.S. In my freshman year of college, I was paired with a roommate from outside of Tokyo and it was cool to chat with her about their culture. She said at her college graduation she would wear a brightly colored kimono. As a parting gift, she gave me a traditional Japanese fan with cats on it because it’s me. I still have it sitting on my dresser. Me and my roommate talk occasionally and she’s always said I could visit and stay with her. Hopefully, I can make that a possibility.

There are so many places that are on my travel bucket list that I didn’t mention. Just typing this list makes me giddy about planning all my future vacations. I can’t wait to graduate college and make traveling a priority.

As I walked 5.2 miles around both lakes in my town, I spent that time calling my friends from home. All of my friends mean the world to me. Every phone conversation I have just reaffirms my belief that the Twin Cities is where I belong. I miss them all deeply, but I’m happy that they exist to brighten my days.

One of my friends goes to an art school in Minneapolis. I am inspired by how she is chasing her dream of improving her artistic talent. I chatted with her briefly on the phone and she has started developing her portfolio and applying for internships. It makes me so happy that she’s succeeding in something she loves to do. The beauty in life is seeing how this friend has grown as a person and how I’m so proud of her. She’s an amazing soul and she’s still young at heart which is how I want to be.

My other friend is living in Minneapolis and already has a job out of college. I love her determination and her wit. She’s the person I called when I had a horrible O-Chem lab and I was bawling my eyes out because of the stress. She’s always down for an adventure and being the introvert that I am, I need someone to get me out of the house. She’s my traveling companion and I hope we travel more this summer when I’m out of college.

Finally, my neighbor is leaving for New Zealand in a month! I get to see her in October before she leaves, but it’s wild to me that she will be halfway around the world by Halloween. I’m proud of her that she’s putting herself in a new situation and not crumbling under the pressure of homesickness *believe me I would!*. I will be so sad to see her go, but that means a trip to New Zealand in the future. . . right?

I’m thankful for the friends who have been by my side all of these years. I love you all.

My birthday was last Saturday and I’m officially 22 years old and I will not quote the T-Swift song. I just got back from a much-needed vacation to Chicago which was so exciting because I had never been before. It makes it easier to visit since the boyfriend lives right near Milwaukee. So I just wanted to post the pictures that I took and recap one of my favorite weekends this summer.

When I visited Chicago, I had a checklist of tourist things to do. Willis Tower, eating Deep Dish Pizza, seeing the bean, and shopping on Michigan avenue. I was able to check off all of these places so now for the pictures.

Willis Tower is the tallest building in Chicago and they have these boxes called the sky boxes. They stick out of the building. You have to pay 22 dollars to go up and see the building which I thought was worth it. It’s crucial to do this earlier in the day though because once we got done at around 11:30, the line was so long.

I can’t go to Chicago and not try Deep Dish Pizza! We went to Gino’s East Downtown and it was so good!

Visiting Millennium Park was pretty cool. It was pretty packed since it was sunny outside, but I still got my bean pictures. There were all these different sculptures around and it reminded me of Minneapolis’s own sculpture garden.

Overall I had a really fantastic trip. I had always driven around Chicago but had never been downtown. It was impossible to do everything in Chicago, but I made a mini list of places and things to see when I go back because it will happen. Traveling is always so fun and I’m glad I got to do at least one summer trip.