Dreams/Goals/Aspirations

12:14 am

Have you ever had an idea come into your head. Where you become wide-eyed and drawn in. You start pondering… “Oh man, what if?”

The smile slowly creeping across your face, the little butterflies coming to life in your stomach, your imagination expanding with the possibilities, the enjoyment, the experience…the dream.

The dream has been made and lays quietly in the back of your mind, waking up every so often to remind you that it is still there. However, sometimes you let yourself completely wake the dream up and you find yourself submersed in daydreaming about what life would be like if you did this.

But then…only to put it to rest when someone tells you it is a “silly idea” or your own mind tells you its impossible.

Every which way for years to come, you deem this dream as just a dream and decide that it is really too late. That, that dream needs to disappear, its over, it will not happen, and that it is “time to get serious about LIFE”. The mundane, routine that we now a days call life.

Although, you and I both know, the dream will never really go away. It will later become a “Man, I wish I took that opportunity when I was younger”…or a “If I could go back”

I refuse to be one of those people. I refuse to look back and say “I wish I did that”. I want to look back and say… “I did everything I dreamed of“.

I am a firm believer in if you want it…get it. Make it happen. and stop thinking you can’t.

I am not really sure when it started. Where this drive to accomplish these wild dreams of mine came from. All I know is that when I have a dream, it overtakes my mind to the point where I can see, taste, and feel it and I refuse to let it go away.

Primarily in my college years I have accomplished some of my dreams/goals both big and small:

I have seen Jack Johnson live.

I ran in my first marathon.

I went skydiving.

I ran in my second marathon with a goal of a better time.

I have learned how to ride and bought my own motorcycle.

I have won a 15 mile trail race.

I have run in a 50 mile ultramarathon.

I have been to a therapist.

I have cut my hair short.

I have seen a real live panda.

And my current dream: Hike the Appalachian Trail.

I am not here on earth to live like anyone else. I am here to be me. To be completely 100 percent my weird self and to experience as much as I can.

Society has this grand plan that we need to live life in a certain order. Go to high school. Graduate. Go to college. Graduate. Find a “Good Career”. Find a lover. Buy a house. Have kids. Blah. Blah. Blah.

What if we just say LIVE? Do what you love and stop being so damn scared. Stop worrying about things that have no relevancy. Stop thinking it is impossible.

I have lived the first part of my life how society wants me to. I officially have a college degree. Now. I am drawing a big black sharpie line through the rest of it. And it is time for Isabella to explore.

The Appalachian Trail. The big AT. 2,190 miles. 14 states. 464,500 approximate gains and losses in elevation. I plan to hike every single inch of it.

Why the Appalachian trail?

I ran across this ideal when I was a freshman in college. Not the PCT or the Continential Divide, but the AT. I was wide eyed looking at the site and my imagination took off. It had such a beauty about it. This dream laid in the back of my mind for a while, slowly increasing in size. It got to the point where I wanted to drop out of school and go explore.

But, I stayed, I weathered the storm and now…Here I am. Where I am a couple weeks from making this dream come to fruition.

I know it is going to be hard. I know it looks glorious but it will give me hell and be one of the hardest things I have ever done. But understand me when I say…I am fully ready and welcoming of it. Challenging myself in every way is something I thrive on.

My excitement is unreal.

My goal is to at least write an update once a week if not more. If hearing about my journey is something you fancy, I welcome you to follow my blog.

Get ready folks! 🙂

-Iz