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Published: February 1st 2015
Hey there,
Recently I have been thinking about starting up a blog - okay that's a lie, I've actually thought about it for awhile now - I just never had the libido to get going I guess until today. I am constantly seeing all of these inspiring travel blogs and photos online and have thought to myself why can't I do that? I'm not exactly the most well-seasoned traveler, but I have done my fair share so far. I'll start off my first post with some background information on how I got bitten by the travel bug.
It kind of all started when I got my first job I guess, well it's what set the course for my future plans to travel in motion anyway. I had just graduated high school and went for a day trip up to nearby Sequoia National Park with one of my closest friends. Lucky for us down in California's Central Valley (where not much else is going on and the ceaseless drought leaves little to feel lucky about) we do have one awesome thing going for us and that is the close proximity in which we leave to the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our curious day trip lead to me submitting my first job application to become a hostess at one of the park's restaurants.
After getting the job on the spot and starting within the week, I was pretty freaking overwhelmed to begin with being that it was also a full time hospitality job with little to no breaks because it was a crazy-busy tourist destination and the tourists were ALWAYS hungry. It also didn't help that it was the only proper restaurant for several miles...
Anyway, back to the whole putting my future life plans in motion thing. Obviously working in a National Park would lead one to meet people from all over the world and meet people I did. I worked with people not only from different states but from different countries which lead me to ask them questions about where they're from and what that was like. Before leaving high school I had always planned to do traveling, but I never really put thought into it maybe because I didn't really think it possible but just more of a dream to escape to in my mind from time to time. My family never did much traveling when I was kid, I could actually count on one hand the amount of times we took any sort of family vacation. I was very eager to learn how to make this traveling thing possible for myself after meeting all of these new travelers who also weren't much older than me.
Backtrack about a year or so before I graduated high school: Into The Wild. The movie had come out my junior year of high school and I was MESMERIZED. I had never heard of anything like Christopher McCandless' story before! I wanted that transcendental experience. Minus the tragic ending, I was completely obsessed. I went out and bought the book immediately and researched articles about his life online. It didn't hurt that Eddie Vedder did the soundtrack for the movie either.I desperately wanted to do something like what McCandless did, and I'll admit that I still haven't but I have had my short bursts of getting away from the norm in own way. Into The Wild is what technically set off the wanderlust compartment in my curious mind.
Fast forward again to my first summer at Sequoia National Park. Once I finally had my own income to do some exploring I went right on ahead and did just that. I'll spare you all of the stories from that summer, but it was definitely a great introduction into life after the confines of high school. I even got a tattoo "I now walk into the wild." Surprise!
That's it for now guys. Sorry about all of the rambling and jumping back and forth.
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Escapist
Zachary Alan Kunkel
You got it!
Hey Rhiana you got it! You are living the dream. I get how hard it seems to start blogging especially if it is a main source of income like it is for a lot of travelers and wish to start blogging soon myself. You have the right mindset and I think it's so cool that you live in Australia now too. I hope you have a lot more stories to tell and will have more adventures in the future too. I also hope this invigorates you to keep blogging and keep traveling and I look forward to your next post!