When Life Denies You Lemons...Make Lemonade

Life is unfair.  She doesn't like to play ball all the time, and when she does it's by her rules.  Her capricious nature can make the stars align for you one day and derail your success the next.  Life is a fickle lady.

Life played a cruel prank on me; she made me believe I was physically in shape to travel in two months time.   Just as I was selling my stuff and finalizing my plans my old shoulder injury came back and jacked up my body.  After several sleepless nights of excruciating pain in my sternum, right chest, upper right back and neck, I saw my osteopath.  After some prying around of my shoulders and chest, he informed me my manubrium (upper part of the sternum) had been dislodged slightly to the right.  The dislocation was the cause for what apparently can cause pain similar to a heart-attack.  That explained a lot.  So I'm going back next week to get the rest of my upper right side of the body manually realigned after which I will undergo several sessions of prolotherapy on my right shoulder, sterno-clavicular joint and upper back.  The financial burden of these sessions, as well as the recuperation period of 8 to 12 weeks (and a re-evaluation a few weeks thereafter) will probably make me postpone my trip.  Those words feel like boulders slamming into my back and making my sterno-clavicular pain feel like nothing.

Making lemonade without lemons

The news crushed me.  I thought my shoulder was fine and I had no idea my SC joint was that bad.  I guess I was used to the pain and discomfort.  Nevertheless, I could not become depressed if addressing the problem took longer than 7 weeks.  I proceeded to write up plans B and C but not before binging on The New Girl, Workaholics and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episodes for four days.

If resigning from work in May could not happen, I was gonna have adventures nonetheless.

Ground rules to plans B and C

If I don't start travelling and seeing new places soon I'll go mad.  I need an escape from my daily life.  This does not give me permission to spend my entire pay check on traveling and doing fun things.  Saving is important to my future globe-trotting goals and to paying my physical therapy bills.  A balance is therefore necessary between fun and savings.

1) Travel expenses cannot replace saving money

2) Keep travels to weekend-long trips.  Not that I get many days to take off anyways.

3) Monthly savings should add up to recoup my physical therapy costs and weekend trips by latest September.

Ground rules set, I can proceed to creating plans B and C.

Plan A

But I thought you were writing plans B and C?  Although it is very likely my trip will be postponed, I need to create my expanded Plan A in case Life sides with me for once.

Plan A had three steps to it.  

Step 1: The first 5 weeks would happen as described in my adventure map.  It would be a glorious, fast-paced trip across Eastern Europe a la Amazing Race.

Step 2: From Barcelona WWOOF in Italy for a few weeks.  Then I would work at hostels and maybe do some bartending in north-western Europe (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, London, Edinburgh, Stockholm).

Step 3:  Fly to northern Finland to work at a Husky farm.  No, they do not raise huskies for sale in Chinese food markets.  They breed and train huskies for sledding!

....and that is as far as I had planned for Plan A.

Plan B

Plan B is a truncated version of Plan A consisting of 3 steps.

Step 1: Keep my job but travel to Barcelona on June 12th and enjoy the Barcelona night-life for 10 days.  What better way to avoid jet-lag by partying it up by night and sleeping by day?

Step 2: Every other weekend travel to a new city.  I will start at those cities where I have friends who can guide me around.

Step 3: Sometime around September/October WWOOF and do fun jobs found at http://www.workaway.info/ until summer time 2014 when I can happily (and warmly) travel the European continent and stay at busy hostels.

Plan C

Plan C departs from the Euro-centricity of Plans A and B.  Here is how it would happen:

My "Motorcycle Diaries" fantasy

Step 1: Resign in October and move to the golden coast!  Work a few odd jobs and spend time exploring the region.  During my spare time I would work on my online businesses.

Step 2: Come end of May, fly to Central America with a friend or two.  There rent/buy motorcycles or a van and criss-cross South America to Brazil.  Time frame: 3 weeks.

Step 3: Partake in the crazy World Cup festivities throughout June.

Step 4: Leave Brazil in July.

Win-Win?

I'm worried it won't be a win-win.  I'm scared I'll get depressed these next few months, especially when my injury keeps me from going outside and having fun without re-injuring my arm.  But I think making the best out of bad situations keeps people sane.  It's that or be sad and disappointed.

Adventure Map

Looking for a way to distract my mind, I decided to sketch out the first 5 weeks of travel.  Plans are subject to change.

KEY

Black spotted lines stand for travel by plane; 

Solid red lines represent travel by train; and

Orange lines mean travel by boat.

These first 5 weeks will start and end in Barcelona.  The five weeks are split into 6 stages:

1) Acclimatization - Adapt to time difference by enjoying the Barcelona nightlife. Time allotted - 2 days.

2) Jewels of the East - Visit beautiful Prague, go back in time to Bratislava, and admire Budapest in 7 days by train.

3) The Far East - Make it (alive) to Sofia, Bulgaria by train then explore the Bulgarian coast by bus as I make my way to Istanbul.  Allotted time - 7 days

4) Island Hopping -  Make it to Thessaloniki, Greece from Istanbul.  Travel by boat to Los and Mykonos and end in Athens, all in 7 days.

5) Croatia - From Zagreb, make my way to the Croatian coast and visit its legendary and hidden towns and islands.  Allotted time - 8 days

6) Return to Home Base - From Zagreb, take a plane back to Barcelona.  Enjoy Barcelona for a few days to decide on a course of action.  Do I want to return to one of the previous destinations?  Where else do I want to go?  Barcelona will be a time to touch base with myself.

This plan is tentative and subject to change on mood shifts, rash decisions and tired legs that refuse to walk another mile.  Hopefully the fast pace of the trip will not be too much to handle.  If it is, I'll stop and rest and rethink my plan.

A Visual Representation of The Jump

The Jump is still a few months away for me yet I can't stop wondering how it will be.  Instead of writing my thoughts in detail, pictures and videos will represent the different outcomes.

A visual interpretation

Jumping has many outcomes.  I can take flight, belly flop to the ground, be swept up by an eagle (how cool would that be?).  Here are some of the many possibilities from best to worst.

The Rebound

I lied.  Before we start from best to worst, here's the coolest outcome.

Sometimes there is no other way to go but down, but down isn't forever!  This video is a metaphor for a second chance; the rebound jump takes you higher than ever before.  At the height of the rebound, gravity starts pulling you back down to end the trip in a magnificent splash.  The cycle starts again and you, knowing it didn't kill you, are more comfortable taking another Jump.

Taking Flight

Let's start with the ideal outcome.  Run, Jump and take flight!  Cruising through the air, the world is reduced to a legoland.  My descent is slow and planned.

Gliding

Remind me to Jump off this cliff.  The view is absolutely stunning!

Jumping from a cliff in the Norwegian fjords, this basejumper describes the before, during and after experience.  His Jump is off a mountain cliff, mine is off a metaphorical cliff yet there are so many parallels between his jump and the jump to cubicle-job liberation.

The absolute worst

Belly flopping.  It stings and the red skin marks are a constant reminder of your, well, failure.  You learn from your mistakes.  You'll do anything to avoid this outcome again.

Be prepared

Don't be caught unprepared.  Planning improves the odd of a nice flight or glide!

The Jump

The last post (also my first) was supposed to be short and concise but it ended up being a semi-angry, steam-blowing post.  I explained my motivations (in too much detail) for quitting my current easy and predictable life.  This post will quickly summarize why I want to quit, what I plan on doing and how I will get there.  And I really mean quickly because it's almost 9 pm my time and I'm really tired from work and I still have several things do to before the night is over! Oh the life of the working, modern person!

The Jump  

Disclaimer:  The Jump is a metaphor.
Don't literally jump off a cliff!

The jump from the known to the uncharted, the predictable to the unpredictable, the stable to the ever-changing.  I will go up to my boss and bring him the news that in three weeks time I will be turning in my resignation letter.  I could wait until it's two weeks and save me the pain of dealing an extra week with half-angry, half-envious co-workers who will give me their two cents on my resignation...whether I want to hear it or not.  But I don't hate my co-workers or my supervisor or the organization I work for, quite simply I was not made for 8 hour shifts in a sunless cubicle, turning my butt cheeks into silly putty, so I will give them enough time to start looking for a replacement.

Why quit?  I don't want to spend my youth living a predictable, comfortable life when I only have one life to live and there is so much to do and see!  I'm not being a rebellious child with no sense of responsibility.  I will work hard on my online businesses during my trips and adventures and take part-time jobs.  Why wait to retire when you can have many mini-retirements throughout your life?

The Flight...or Fall

Hopefully much will be learned travelling and exploring, sailing my ship of to a destination unknown.  If I fail in my online business pursuits, or succumb to the pressures of insecurity, instability and financial uncertainty I can always start a 9-5 job again.  That would be the fall.  Succeeding in traveling and sustaining myself would be considered the flight, choppy as it may be at the start.

Taking The Leap

To Jump my legs need to be strong enough to carry me to the cliff and my mind strong enough to overcome my survival instinct to do something as insane as to jump off a mountain. Leaping starts long before I throw myself from the cliff...it starts with mental preparation and physical conditioning months before I ever get to the cliff.  That  is where I am at right now, and I get cold feet every 10 minutes.  But I will save that for another post.

To Leap I need to save enough to survive on my own without any income for at least 6 months.  My body should be in shape to carry me through my adventures.  My determination must be as hard as rock or otherwise succumb to fear and pressure.  These have become my main obstacles up to date.  But again, more on that in further posts.

Time to get ready for tomorrow's workday.  Maybe I'll have time tomorrow to write another post.