Giving Up on your Goals

I was recently reading a reddit thread and came across a post by somebody who was critical on goals. These are my thoughts and response as posted to Facebook.

It's more a different way of looking at things. I think that the word "goal" alludes to an endpoint of some nature. If you reach a money saving goal, you stop saving. If you score a goal in a sport, your possession ends. In reality, there are no endpoints, save in closed environments. However, life is not a closed environment. My worldwide excursion, for example, should not be a "goal," but a waypoint on the way to something greater. Which I am still working on a word for. :P

Anti-Nationalism and Open Minds

I've got a cool story before I start on my nationalism thing.

Last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I was packing a couple out of Manhattan. They were moving to Washington D.C. On Tuesday, they bought me lunch and I spent an hour and a half talking to them. They were moving to DC because he had taken a job with the NIH (and now reports directly to Kathleen Sebielius). While in Manhattan, she was a doctor and he was employed at KSU as a vet professor. Before they were in Manhattan, they lived in Wisconsin, where she was a cancer research specialist at Mayo Clinic. Turns out they've lived in plenty of other places around the world and in the US. Oh yeah, they're now naturalized US citizens, too. Originally from Peru.

I mention this because we spent some time talking about my travel plans. They had some very good insight, very good thoughts. Namely, everyone from this area is great, but they are clones. Their parents have lived here, they grow up here, go to school here, live here, the cycle continues. Which isn't a bad thing. But, as she said, it creates clones. There was a lot of focus on having an open mind. We spoke a lot about being true to yourself as well. And as much as I thought I was, I still have a lot to learn...

But the last thing she said to me made me feel great. She said, "You may not know where you're going or what you're doing yet, but you'll be alright. You're going to do great things, important things." That, coming from a woman who is doing cutting edge research on one of the most dangerous diseases in humanity and who knows people of the caliber of knowledge and work such as her husband...that means something to me.

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Now for the topic at hand. Recently, I've been feeling very anti-patriotic. Very anti-nationalist. Meaning I feel a detachment from the label "American" and the desire to call this place my home. Not that I'm ashamed or un-proud, by any means. I'm not quite sure what to make of it, even after my conversation with Cody at the Bean last night (I'm sensing a pattern here...).

For the sake of explanation, we decided that "nationality" is the foundations of origin and moral belief. My detachment stems from the fact that, quite simply, I don't want to be a person of one place. I want to be a citizen of the world. I feel that claiming a nationality is a limiting factor on the openness of one's mind. When you have these preconceived notions, far too often you're not willing to look beyond those. For example, in Amsterdam say, should I not smoke with a new friend because it's deemed unhealthy and illegal in America?

I need to continue this one...it's not done yet. It's just not written yet, either.

Stranger Stories

Last night (with the moral support of Cody) I left a book at the Classic Bean on Fairlawn.

It was inspired by the PostSecret project, and conceived with the prospect of taking the project one step further. For those of you who don't know, PostSecret is an art project created by Frank Warren in which anonymous people from all over the world send their secrets to him on postcards. The primary idea is that we all have secrets and we all share secrets. We are more unified than we know.

The book, a small leatherbind, has instructions on the first two pages:

1. The current owner of the book should write something. It can be a secret, a drawing, a story, a song...it doesn't matter, and can be any length. So long as it is true about that person. Also, preferably something that not many people know.
2. When they're ready to pass it on, the challenge comes. I ask that instead of just handing the book over, they take a dive and talk about their entry to the next person. A stranger to them. I suggested that they leave an email and telephone as well, so that they may be contacted again.

On the last page, I left instructions for contacting me to return the book. I have no idea where it will go, if it will work or, if it does, if it will be returned to me. It's a fairly thick book, so it may take some time to fill. I don't think that I should expect it back for a while, maybe even years. I do look on the bright side, though. I recently read an article about a sculptor who had his work returned to him after nearly forty years. It made me feel a bit better.

Also, I'm thinking about starting another book, slightly different. Rather than being open for art, I think I'll direct people to write the story of their most life changing event in the book or something that has happened that profoundly affected the person. Reading something like that, seeing a hundred stories of things that have changed lives written by hand...that would evoke thought and emotion. But first, I have to come up with some spare cash. :)

Here's the story...

This has been in the works for a long time. Since summer '04 when I spent three weeks in the UK, I've always wanted to go back for a longer period of time. When I graduated high school, I didn't feel prepared to take on the world by myself and college was a perfect option. But traveling was always in the back of my mind.

Although I enjoyed the atmosphere at university, I was burnt out on school. I'd spent nearly all of the past twenty years of my life studying and learning, going to class and doing homework. It was time for a change. This previous semester I took only seven hours of classes, hoping that maybe the light schedule might be just what I need to get back into the swing of things. It didn't work.

I suppose what really set me off was a conversation with an old friend, Ron. I had spent one Saturday morning doing some yard work for him and we came upon the topic of things that I want to do during my lifetime...and things that he had wanted to do. Although he had had a great lifetime, I distinctly remember the look of sadness on his face when he was telling me of the places he wished he would've went, the things he wished he would've done. It was at that point when I decided I did not want that sadness in my life. I was inspired. After that chat, I ended up spending my time (when not doing classwork or working) dreaming up and laying out the groundwork for an extended world tour.

As the semester drew on, I had several friends question my motives in school. They noted changes in my behavior toward and conversations about school. Strangely enough, I became more aware of these things myself. I had come to the realization that this desire to travel was not going to remain just a dream, as it does for too many. I was going to make this a reality. By the time of that final epiphany, there were only a few short weeks of the spring '09 semester left. I had expended enough time and effort into laying out my plan that I felt it was time to take the first steps to make it happen. The first thing I needed was some advice, which I sought through Dr. Pat Bosco, the Dean of Student Life at KSU.

The conversations between he and I are deserving of their own post, suffice to say that they went well and he provided me a lot of direction. On Friday, May 15th, I spent some time (following the reccomendation of Dr. Bosco) with one of the counselors at K-State, Quentin. By the end of my conversation with Quentin, I had no reservations.

This was it.

Intro!

Hello All!

I'm Eric, and I've decided to start this blog to chronicle my experiences during my preparation and travel of the world. I've got a lot to share and a lot more to do, so I'll try to update as often as I can. Although my words available to anyone who might stumble upon this page, I plan on posting some more personal thoughts on the blog as well. Undertaking a journey like this evokes a lot of emotions - many unexpected - and I want to put all of those feelings in writing, good, bad or otherwise.

At this time, I've already had some meetings with people who can help guide my decision making process, so posts on those will be to come, as well as some backing information on why I'm doing this.

So, without further adieu, enjoy!