Thoughts of a Wonderluster

One of the great recent traditions between my best friends and I is to go on an annual trip to explore this great country of ours. It's a chance to spend time together like we used to a decade ago and remember old memories while we create new ones. The first two trips have been amazing and, selfishly, have helped me cross more states off my list en route to all 50 by the time I turn 30. This year's trip will be equally amazing - lots of great parks and driving in store this time around. Year Three Spokane, WA > Glacier National Park, MT > Yellowstone National Park, WY > Craters of the Moon, ID > Grand Teton National Park, WY > Salt Lake City, UT. Living in a city like I do, it makes getting out into nature even more thrilling knowing that I'll be in such an amazing setting with some of my best friends. Less than three months and counting... Year One Las Vegas, NV > Grand Canyon, AZ > Gallup, NM >  Cortez, CO / Mesa Verde > ...

Yesterday was Memorial Day and a friend and I cruised down to Oak Street Beach like we usually do when the weather breaks. Winter's hibernation is over - it's time to enjoy another summer in Chicago. After a quick lunch at Shake Shack we walked up Michigan Ave. First bad sign: loads of teenagers standing near the Drake. Second bad sign: police doing bag checks before the tunnel Third bad sign: teens as far as the eye could see on the beach When you're in beach mode there's no turning back. We walked our way past the sand courts, through a few groups of people, and marked our territory near two similarly-aged women (there weren't many of us). I bust out some watermelon, pull out my Grateful Dead book, and put in my headphones. I took a quick look around and saw nothing but teenyboppers. Here's the problem - I was a teenager once, so I'm not anti-teenager - but when you mix teenagers from different schools with alcohol and the insatiable d...

This is a post in a series of posts that detail various trips I've been on over the years. Trips and stories will be posted nonlinearly. READ ME . Laissez le bon temps rouler. Thursday, May 11th, 2017 Like most of my trips, this one started early in the morning. Alarm rang at 6:00am and I had no issues getting up - much easier process than an hour later when I normally get up for work. Finished packing and fired up the Uber-machine - the first of many Uber trips over the next few days. Louis picked me up in his Nissan Sentra and we were on our way. I will always talk to my Uber/Lyft drivers regardless of time of day because I love hearing their stories. --- Here's the thing. Generally speaking, people need to do a better job of learning more about the people around them. Talk to strangers when it's appropriate. Talk to your driver. Talk to a front desk person. People that are willing to open up and share thoughts and opinions (good or bad) make the world a...

There are two books I've read by choice that have significantly altered my outlook on life. 1. Into the Wild - John Krakauer 2. Travels with Charley  - John Steinbeck I read both early on in high school on my own volition and what interested me initially (and still to this day) is that they deal with travel, self-reliance, and human experiences. Over the past few years I've done a lot of traveling domestically and abroad in large part because of my wander/wonderlust and I really feel like a more well-rounded and knowledgeable person as a result. To me, life isn't just about myself and how I feel like I fit in the world and environment in which I live - it's also about understanding how others fit into that same world. The human condition is a fascinating thing and what spurs me along, in part, are the myriad of people I've met across the globe along the way. On my journeys I've kept some form of notes, whether written or mental, but I've never sha...

Indiscriminately strewn  stars  dance across a cavernous  backdrop as we glimpse into a  past  in which our  fibers  were  dust. We gaze upon a  canvas  unchanged from the  lives  of those before us  and  ~wonder~ clandestine  thoughts as we internalize how  s m a l l  we really are. The sequence of  events across billions of  years that led to this  moment  and every  moment  from now until eternity's  end  are an interstellar  roadmap that intersected  me     with          you. Shooting  stars  race across the  sky and create a momentary  Pollock as we look up from this  hammock  for  two. I turn to  you  and see the  night  sky  in your  eyes  and ~wonder~  to myself how  ...

I continually strive to be a better person to myself and to others. Self-reflection is an essential part of maturing because it helps us turn ideas and thoughts into tangible and measurable benchmarks on our path to being a better version of ourselves. Whether we talk about how we look, how we act, or how we think, having the discussion internally or externally helps us find what feels good in our lives and cope with our internal struggles. It's not always easy, but you have to learn to love yourself inside and out - to forgive your misgivings, focus on the positives, and be more comfortable in your own skin. This is an ongoing battle for me, but it's a battle I’m willing to fight because I’m worth it - you're worth it. As we continue to come to grips with who we are through introspection, friendships, relationships, or happenstance meetings, hopefully people will recognize you for you or me for me and appreciate what makes us interesting and unique. There's n...

Life is made of a million singular moments that, woven together, create the fabric of our psyche. We all have key moments we can recall, many of which we’ve shared over the years, but why do I remember certain events and you don’t (or vice versa)? What makes certain moments more memorable to us than others? Moments can be a lot of things. They can be happy. They can be disappointing. They can make you feel passionate about life or others. They can make you feel destitute and devoid of energy as a result of pain. How we perceive the positive and negative effects of these moments on personal development is the difference between a fleeting moment and a lasting memory.

Anyone who knows me beyond face value knows that music is a big piece of my life. Through our personal evolution in life we go through different stages where our interests wane and shift - there are few things that are constant. As I've crept further from my college years I've become less reliant on technology and devices I used to hold so dear and now use them to expand my love for music. Example - I'm streaming a Bon Iver concert on my laptop and casting it to my TV. I haven't turned on my cable in over a week. It's hard to describe the feeling you get when the precisely placed notes of a melody you love announce themselves to your eardrums, but you know the feeling. It's a feeling I wish I could bottle up and apply to other parts of life. I can throw on a CD (remember those?) or a record and instantly be taken to the place or the setting I was in when I first heard those notes. Several weekends ago I was in New Orleans for a bachelor party (future blog ...

Another blog in a sea full of blogs. The truth is I've thought about making a blog for years, but never followed through. An ugly duckling among a world of tech-savvy peers, I still like to write things down. There's something about holding a pen and writing down your thoughts because you're devoid of a backspace key or an eraser. What flows from your head as your pen dances across the page are thoughts virgin to the world. I usually carry a notepad and pen with me wherever I go because, as I wrote in my blog description, our thoughts are often left unwed to action because our minds are curious and jump from one idea to the next with fervor. So, why a blog? Why now? I was walking around Old Town in Chicago yesterday with a friend and he asked me what three things I'd like to learn by the time I'm 30 - really an excellent question. I'm committed to a life of learning because the second we stop pursuing knowledge is the second we stop being curious - a...