friday morning ramblings from the wino

Welp, the romantic and hubs are en route to Par-ee, which means its just you and me for the next few days, travelers. What better time than now to put down the glass and indulge in a little tête-à-tête with my devoted readers!

Lately, my posts have been lacking inspiration, which is probably due to the fact that this lazy traveler hasn’t been traveling. Instead, I’ve been babysitting. In the suburbs. Neat, I know. If there’s one thing babysitting has given me, its time to really go over and over (and over and over) how I got to this point. If you asked me at sixteen what I thought I’d be doing in ten years, it certainly wouldn’t be this.

I knew way before I went off to college that I wanted to major in international affairs. I thought I’d be a diplomat or foreign dignitary traveling from continent to continent rubbing elbows with the leaders of the world. By my junior year in college, I realized I was a little too lazy green to excel in international politics, so I picked up an anthropology minor, thinking that some university would jump at the chance to pay me to hang out in foreign countries and write about my experiences. Aaaand, because I wasn’t quite ready to give up academia (and the college lifestyle) when it came time to graduate, I went straight into grad school– abroad of course.

Studying international development in grad school really gave me perspective. Researching and writing my thesis made me realize I could travel, make a career for myself, AND make the world a better place. I returned home from Ireland wide-eyed and ready to change the world and slammed right into the brick wall that was our recession, complete with sky-high unemployment rate.

I was devastated. I had my masters! I was told all my life that if I kept my nose to the books and worked hard, I could do whatever I wanted to do! Why didn’t these development organizations and non-profits want me! Cue serious case of self-pity.

Almost three years later, having worked odd jobs and bad jobs and just downright horrible jobs, I’m back at square one. I know I’ll never be an ambassador, I doubt I’ll be a legitimate anthropologist, and I’m not even sure my ambitions to work in development will ever be realized. What I do know, is that travel is just as important to me now as it was all those years ago. Can I make a career out of it? I don’t know. But gosh-darnit I’m gonna try!

Yesterday the romantic sent me my horoscope, which said that my career ambitions may be on hold at the moment, but perhaps that’s fate intervening and pointing me in a different direction. I don’t know what direction that is, but I’m just going to trust in it. That’s what being twenty-six is all about, right? And if all else fails, I have my new savings account, which is looking more and more promising with every post.

Have a great weekend, travelers!

the wino