Last weekend I went on a trip with my brother to St. Louis to see the eclipse. We explored the zoo, climbed around the City Museum, and visited the Gateway Arch. On Monday we walked around a sculpture park and viewed totality from a clearing in the woods. It was probably the best trip I’ve been on in years, but my favorite part by far was the ten or so hours I spent in the car talking with my brother.
Over the course of the weekend, our conversations covered a variety of topics, from conservation to politics to space flight to life goals. I learned about the different ways we experienced our shared past, as well as aspirations I had never heard him talk about before. Looking back at that weekend, I am reminded of how important it is to occasionally step out of your routine. At this point in our lives, I think we’re both happy in our personal lives but unhappy with our careers. It’s so easy to get stuck in your day-to-day routine of work-errands-sleep-repeat. This one small trip made me realize how narrow my life view is becoming, the absolute wealth of possibilities that exists just outside of my quotidian vision. It’s something that used to scare me: the prospect of becoming an adult so accepting of the monotony of life that I ceased to question things.
My philosophizing is beginning to sound like an existential crisis. Really, it feels like the opposite. I’m reminded how important it is to be intentional in how I live my life. Too often I let my actions and time be dictated by who/where I am now, rather than who/where I want to be. Prioritizing matters. Who knew??
Is this too vague? Probably. That’s already a pattern in my posts. Oh well.