CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE

As a youngster, almost every trip to the library culminated with the checking out of at least one 'choose your own adventure' book. After all, who doesn't get a kick out of being able to have a hand in the storyline, in essence, choosing how a story that you're reading is going to turn out? I remember vacillating over what each option would mean for the story, and the character that I had grown to love: what would happen if Mary Sue decided to step inside the time machine? and what would happen if she chose to go into the other, mysterious room instead? Her fate was in my hands. At present, I feel like my own life story is a 'choose your own adventure'. I know that whatever comes next will in fact be an adventure, it's the choosing between the options and not knowing what those options will lead to in the story of my life that has me stuck vacillating all over again. What would happen if I stayed here? What would life look like if I took that job? Or moved to that place? My fate is in my hands. And as great as it is to basically have the world as my oyster, it makes it all the more difficult to choose between the adventures because they all look enticing on a certain level, and at the same time I'm also uncertain of how I want the story to continue. Instead, I'm stuck on the page that says, "If Megan chooses A, turn to page 24; if she chooses B, turn to page 13". Maybe if I put the book down for a bit and come back to it the decision will come more naturally, I suppose we'll see.

IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE

In the midst of studying my calendar to figure out what exactly is going on in my life in the near future it suddenly dawned on me that we're practically already in mid-March. . .MID-MARCH! How on earth did that happen?! Has it really been 2 and a half months since I was home in Washington? And will the next 2 and a half months from now be here in the blink of an eye too? I know that people say that the older you get the faster time seems to go, but I don't think that I fully believed them until now (blame it on my stubborn nature and my desire to learn things firsthand). In spite of my previous inclination to want to fast forward my life, I'm coming to see that time is already going fast enough all on its own and instead of putting my focus on things that lie ahead in the relatively distant future I need to work on focusing on the here and now even more before it passes me by. Spending a considerable amount of time these days amongst youngens ranging from preschool to middle-school age, I've found myself reminiscing about those years of my own life and, as great as they were, wishing that I would've reveled in that time even more and not been so anxious to move on to the next big thing. It's made me realize that I don't want to look back on this time of life with that same type of sentiment, but rather I want to do all that I can now to enjoy this time in life to its fullest, knowing full well that everything else that I desire for my future will happen in due time and it's not worth losing time/life/experiences over in the meantime. I'm going to try my darnedest to drink in every single day and every step along the way because I'm sure that it'll be next year, five years from now, ten years from now, before I even know it.

SOGGY DAY ADVENTURE NUMERO DOS

Apparently I like to go on little jaunts around this area on days when the weather is less than desirable. But being free of schoolwork this weekend, after holing up all of last weekend to slave away on finals, I wasn't going to let a few (or a lot of) raindrops hold me down. So, braving the downpour I headed north to Yorktown, the site of the last major land battle of the American Revolutionary War. I've somewhat always known it, but yesterday I came to terms with the truth that I really love history, and even more importantly, visiting historical sites. Yep, I'm a nerd. Seriously though, it was really neat (and sort of eerie) to be walking around amidst the same exact bunkers that ultimately played a part in the creation of our country. I even got the chance to stand inside the same tent that George Washington used as his headquarters during the siege. It was pretty sweet. There were also many other remnants from that time period around the area including this quaint little church and this dugout place that I'm not entirely sure what it was (but thought looked cool). I love it. Being that the pass that I had purchased gave me access to both Yorktown and Jamestown I decided to continue my expedition by driving the 23 mile route to Jamestown via the Colonial Parkway, which, by the way, was a fabulous scenic drive and highly recommended for a good session of blasting music, singing your heart out, and taking it all in. However, if you do decide to try and replicate that experience, my only suggestion would be that you don't follow in suit by getting to your destination after its operating hours. Oops.

entrance = denied

same story here

It looks like Jamestown, and Williamsburg, will have to be an adventure for some other day. . .maybe I'll aim for a better weather day the next time around, spice it up a bit. Until next time, Vince and your damp, history-loving nerd say adios.