"You've got some of your father in you...sorry about that."

Late nights in the car are great for pondering life and spilling your brain out to your dad. Unless you're driving, which I may or may not have been doing when I told dad about my secret desires tonight. Watch, on my tombstone it's going to say: "Cause of Death: Dreaming and Driving."

"Hey, so, how disappointed in me would you be if I ditched college and lived out of a car, road-tripping the states/Canada/South America for a year-ish?" 
"It's your life. Do what you want, just consider the consequences." I totally love that he took me seriously.
"And what if I married some dude who ISN'T a lawyer or doctor or engineer and we ran off and made our own living as awesome non-conforming people?" 
"Good for you guys. Just make it work, because that's risky." I also love that he seemed chill with me getting married in the next half decade-ish.
[Silence]
"How popular is The Church in Africa?" 
"...Wait, what?"
"Africa. Is the church dense there? Would I be able to be an active member if I moved there?" 
"...why are you talking about moving to Africa like it's happening next year?"
"BECAUSE IT MIGHT BE, OKAY. Look, I'm so fascinated by that place. It's so nomadic and agrarian, which is so foreign to me, growing up in America, and I want to LIVE that as a part of the culture. I've been thinking about it forever and non-stop all day. I'm seriously contemplating going and studying apes or giraffes. It's all so invigorating and wonderful and I want to know it." 
"You've got some of your father in you. Or a lot of me in you. I'm sorry about that."

Thank you Dad, for my restless heart and head that's always in the clouds.

I think a lot of us are missing something.

I've been exposed to a lot of graduating seniors as the school year has come to a close. They're all doing the exact same thing; graduating, going to college, getting a degree, and along the way they'll marry someone and settle down somewhere and raise a generation the same way they were raised.

There's nothing wrong with this. If that's what you want to do, do it.

But can I be so bold to say that, heck, I don't want to do that? I think the world is far too beautiful and teeming for me to be glued to a conveyor-belt system. I think humans are too individual and custom-made to go through the same process as everyone else. And I think it's absolutely devastating that we've boxed ourselves into this paradigm that wealth and "normality" equal success.

In all honesty, at the end of my life, if I've done everything society told me to do, and went through the motions to get by, walked around stressed out like everyone else, and never got to experience the world through adventures and human connection, I'll probably consider myself super unsuccessful. Even if I stayed financially stable. Because THE WORLD IS DANG GORGEOUS AND MOST OF US HAVE BARELY SEEN IT OR DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND THAT MOST PEOPLE ON THIS PLANET DON'T HAVE RUNNING WATER OR PASTEY-WHITE OFFICE MEN TO SOLVE ALL THEIR PROBLEMS. I want to see and feel and dance and work and play and sing with all the beautiful people who live in places drastically different from the place I call "home".

I don't think we realize that there is no guaranteed ticket to "success", and I think we have to be really brave to accept the fact that true success comes from being happy. Truly, authentically happy. And that comes from being who we are, which is to be different. That takes courage, and it's scary as heck. I'm still figuring that out.

But hey, I think life is the greatest adventure I'll ever have, and when the sun sets on this lovely adventure of mine, I want to look back on everything I've experienced and be proud to put it in a book. And I think that's going to come from being a little different. Like Jane Goodall, "a young girl, no degree, no nothing. Just a notebook, a pencil, and some passion."

We'll see how this goes. Life, bring on the sunshine and experience. I'm ready and happy.

Also- an applicable song that's one of my favorites:

 Roll Away Your Stone