the first step
I finally took the first step towards this little trip of mine: I started getting everything ready to apply to graduate school.
It seems odd that this would be the first step, but let me explain: if I weren’t attending graduate school in the fall, I would not have the opportunity to run off for two weeks. I wouldn’t have enough vacation time, nor would it ever be approved by the managers. So, by having graduate school at the end of August, I would know where I was going to be and I can plan out my money accordingly.
Basically, it comes down to this: I will have eight months to save up money, not only for this trip, but to move into an apartment in Binghamton. I also have to balance student loans, my car loan and rent, along with car insurance and, you know, food.
The temptation I’m facing is to save up the money to pay off my car instead of going on the trip. That would be the practical thing to do. It is something to consider: without a $100 payment each month for another year, I could save up money for the trip and possibly be not-quite-so strapped for cash in the long run. The problem is if I don’t do it now, there is no guarantee I will ever do it, especially not by myself.
It’s not that I wouldn’t want to go with Vince or anyone else for that matter. I would love to go on a long trip with Vince, just the two of us. But this is something I want to do on my own. The more that I’ve thought about it, the more attractive the idea becomes. It would be amazing to be responsible to no one else; to stop where I want to stop and do what I want to do. It would be something I would have for myself. It would be hard, since no one else would know what I was talking about or understand what I went through, but I think it would be worth it to show that I would be able to survive on my own for two weeks.
The other problem is that I need to seriously chart a course across the US that would be do-able in the time-table I figure out. Much like anything else I do, I try to take on too much all at once. I need to know exactly what I want to see and prioritize it based on what is feasible. Then I need to plan it out and have an idea of when I want to get to each place and know how much time I have in between stops.
The only thing I know I want to do is to drive south from Portland to San Francisco. It’s cheesy, but the song California One/Youth and Beauty by The Decemberists makes me want to make that drive. It sounds amazing… to drive down the west coast. To think: me, on the west coast. It seems impossible right now, with Rochester buried under a few feet of snow and the temperatures hovering in the teens.
To watch the Pacific rise and fall…
