Explore. Dream. Discover.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do.  So throw off the bowlines.  Sail away from the safe harbor.  Catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore.  Dream.  Discover."  ~Mark Twain

This wonderful quote from the brilliant Mark Twain was in my Burn Support News that I get from the Phoenix Society and it couldn't be more true.  I know I can get caught up in the things that I did in my past to either myself or others but like Twain says, twenty years from now that's not what's gonna get me down or disappoint me.  It's gonna be the things that I didn't do, the things I let slip between my fingers, the dreams I didn't chase with my running shoes on.

It's time I stop playing life so safe.  I used to play life with reckless abandon and then my accident happened and I've been safe ever since.  I only get to live once and in the end I will be disappointed if I continue on this journey tied to the safe harbor.  I've got to really get serious about getting my PhD because I know that will be an ultimate sore spot if I don't go for it.  I know I missed it for this coming year so I best be getting prepared for it when it comes around to applying for the year 2013/2014.  I also want to learn a second and third language.  I think it's a pretty wonderful and fantastic thing to be able to understand and speak a language other than your native tongue.  And close to that same goal is being a world traveler.  I have always loved to travel and I think it's most important to see and experience the world and other cultures.  I've thus far been to Japan, Ecuador, and Jamaica that is out of the states and I want to see and experience so much more.  I would LOVE to walk the Camino de Santiago someday.  That would be an ultimately amazing experience.  And I want to go to as many concerts as I can because they simply make me happy.

Those are just a few of the things I want to accomplish in my life other than the big one - finding a career I love.  I feel intimidated by them a little bit because of my age. I feel like I'm too old to be getting started on all of those things but I guess I've got to get that out of my head and strap those running shoes on and go for it.  To catch the wind in my sails and explore, dream and discover all that I can in my life.