What made you the way you are? And how did you get to be where you are right now?
It’s a question that’s been swirling around my brain for a few days now. Not because The Quarantine Blues tickle thoughts of existential dread out of even the most resilient optimists (that’s just the side effect of the present turning into an unending blob of time that refuses to pass since March, 2020).
No, these questions have been on my mind since I opened up my inbox to find an email from @shelby_stanger (the lovely human behind one of my favorite podcasts “Wild Ideas Worth Living”.)
“When did you get your first wild idea, and were there signs pointing you to do it? And how did you shush the doubt in your own head and the doubters outside you?”
Admittedly, her question held significantly less overtones of existentialism than my understimulated brain read into them.
Since there’s very little to do these days other than rummage around in memories of the past (and wander around virtual science conference spaces), I’m going to use this space to muse on the question.
So in case you’re wondering what’s going to happen here over the next few posts: I’ll be taking a storytelling stroll down memory lane to figure out what got me to go on solo long-distance trips in the first place. And my hope is that by the end of it, I can send Shelby a good reply… and that these stories can perhaps be one of many building blocks that set you up to go on solo trips of your own. I can only highly recommend it. 😉