January. Everything is a countdown to January. It still scares me to think of quitting my job, and it will certainly be expensive, but for all I know, this could be the only chance I have to take a year off while I’m still young.
Yesterday I took my first hike of the season, with positive results. It was a lake hike roughly 4 hours roundtrip, and I even found myself ascending a ridge back near the actual bowl of the valley. The lake was farther away from the bowl, so after reaching the lake, I headed over there because I was intrigued, and then saw a clear path that led straight up the ridge beside the bowl, likely a path people follow to hike the 13ers in the area. At the top, I was very close to the saddle between the two, as well as additional ridges. And there were sheep! I didn’t follow the other ridges, but I was proud for getting up so far and hiking up such a steep ridge to begin with, so I headed back down. This felt like proof to me that my workouts have been making a difference. Whether I can handle 6-8 hours of trekking each day for 3 weeks remains to be seen, but that’s why I’m starting now: next Spring is going to be here sooner than I know it.
Sometimes I wonder if a year will be enough, and I know that it won’t be. I’m trying to injected some added practicality to my software development training, because it’s still ultimately my goal to earn my money and get out, or at least be able to get out, and while this planned year off will set that back some, it’s clear to me that this whole Financial Independence stuff works. The more practical my study is, the faster I can earn more money, and the faster I can build the big pile of money that will hopefully fund my freedom.
And there are questions in my head: I don’t know just how adventurous I really want my life to be. Adventurous enough to go backpacking in extremely remote locations for several weeks, sure, but there’s a notable difference between learning one place in great detail and experiencing many places briefly. (I also have no interest in jumping out of a plane, if you want to define adventure outside of hiking/travel anecdotes). It’s tempting to think I need to turn this planned year off into some giant globe trot, but that’s not actually my desire. It’s more like, “Here are the places I really want to go, let’s check those out”. But at the end of the day, I still prefer a home base.
For years I used to go to lunch with some of my friends every Sunday, and we typically went to 1 of the same 5 restaurants each time. There was kind of a specialness to this, the specialness of familiarity. Those places now have a significance in my life, because they were places I frequented in my 20s. At the same time, though, it can be fun to try new restaurants, and there was a time I was attempting to try as many new ethnic restaurants as I could. I think the entropy of life tends to push back against this, even with hiking locations, as it takes a certain amount of effort and cognitive strain to navigate someplace new and march into the unknown, so to speak. It can certainly be rewarding, but there is also reward in returning to familiar locations: you might find there is always something you missed.
I’ve been back to my favorite valley somewhere around 20 times. Honestly, it’s starting to get old. However, there is always something new to see, if you are just willing to wander off the beaten track a little. In fact, I discovered several mining cabins and adits using Google Earth, and checking these out is very high on my list of priorities this Summer. If you only hike a valley once, you’ll never see all it has to offer, and that’s why I can’t bring myself to be onboard with trying to adventure “ALL OF THE PLACES”. I guess I have always desired a deeper understanding of the world around me, and you don’t get that by spreading yourself too thin.
Mind you, the cultural ideal typifies the “always new” version of adventure, but I prefer a hybrid strategy: be open to the new, be willing to push yourself into this from time to time, but choose otherwise to focus on a handful of places that mean the most to you, and explore those in greater depth. Honestly, though, sometimes I need a little help pushing myself into new things, I just don’t want that to be my only focus in life.
And I think that’s how I hope to approach my planned year off: begin taking the steps to experience those places I’ve wanted to experience, and learn from there.
It’s morning right now and the sun is still coming up. The light comes in from my window and gently illuminates the patterns on my bookshelf which, incidentally, has the colors of morning painted on it: the light blue/green, the red petals, the orange background, the drooping of leaves. I think it would be a great shame to not truly feel the presence of the things around you, to not truly know the familiar. Many people go through life oblivious to the great possibilities both distant and near! But even then, every morning, there seems to be something new to experience in this bookshelf’s colors, and new experiences for a new day.
I’ll probably spend today resting and get back to the gym Monday. As I mentioned, next Spring could be here before I know it, so I want to make sure I’m not missing out on life and not missing my chance to prepare for this big trek.