It all started with a loud and clear “WRITE THE BOOK” forming in my mind while I was in the middle of a nap/meditation on abundance. I had been exhausted, but I sat straight up in bed when I received this message, feeling full of energy.
It’s interesting how things come together when you really let go. In 2012 I got to go to Cancún for the first time. I fell in LOVE with the latin culture, all of it. I took TONS of pictures, something I love doing. I so love losing myself behind the lens. Upon returning home, while editing pictures, I had the idea to add my own poetry to some of my pictures. However, I just couldn’t get the two to mesh. Then all of a sudden, I started writing poetry to the pictures I was editing and I sat down and wrote five poems/poetic verses in less than twenty minutes. I had the idea to create a whole book like this of photography and poetry. But I didn’t. It seemed like daunting impossible task and I talked myself out of it, saying things to myself like, “I don’t have time to edit enough photos to make a book. I need to be out working, making money. I don’t even know how to write a book or get it published.” You know, really silly self-defeating talk, and three years later, here is this idea again, knocking on my brain. This time there’s a different woman answering the call. A woman whose sole focus is living and creating love and joy. A woman who sees exciting opportunity where there were once problems. A woman who sees nothing as impossible now.
The thing about dreams, is that they never go away. And the longer you go on denying yourself the call of your own spirit, the worse you feel, until you don’t even want to think about those dreams anymore, because it’s too painful. So just give in to the well being that comes from living your truth! Trust your intuition. Follow your inspiration. You don’t have to see the next step on the staircase in order to set foot on it. Just lift your foot in faith and each stair step will light up as you come to it.
After I sat up, I was flooded with ideas and inspiration. Travel. Language. Culture. Photography. Poetry. Painting. Writing. All of it! In high school I always dreamed of going to a school in which I could study abroad. I dreamed of going to art school out east. I was accepted to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. I LOVED it. I thought it was brilliant. And I could study abroad in Ireland. I chickened out because of the price tag it came with as well as the opinions of others at the time who thought an art school with such an unorthodox style was taboo. (Though it is perfect for self-directed artists such as myself!) So here I am, still dreaming the dream of studying abroad, but that’s not all!
I’ve spent A LOT of time lately thinking back to that girl I was in high school and all the dreams I had then. That’s when I learned I was very passionate about foreign language. I took two years of Spanish and two years of French. I was kicking myself for not taking four years of French and graduated with 110 % in French 2. (Gee, you would’ve thought I’d have picked up on that flashing sign that said, ‘Hey! Foreign language is important to you, foreign language could be a career or part of a career for you!’…but I didn’t. It was just fun!) I LOVE language, communication, and different cultures. I can’t get enough. I want to be completely fluent in multiple languages, beginning with Spanish, Portuguese, and French. So the idea to spend next winter studying abroad in a warmer locale was born and quickly grew into a new dream. But today, I am a woman pursuing my dreams. Today I know that dreams become reality only by believing they can become reality and actively moving towards them.
I don’t need to lose anything else in order to understand that the great wealth, the extensive travel, the career fully making use of all my natural talents and passion, that I desire is achievable and good. I’ve had the experience of losing everything a few times. I no longer need to lose anything in order to fully hear, see, feel, and follow my own guidance. That’s…HUGE.
It’s also the reason I’m doing this. I’ve been doing a little research on how people are fundraising for their businesses, for their books, for the creation of an album, and for so many other things. It seems no one has really ever done what I’m wanting to do. I kept searching and searching for somewhere in which someone has chronicled his or her journey of creating something of the likes I am looking to create. I couldn’t find what I really wanted, which was something of the likes of Eat, Pray, Love for business, sort of. I couldn’t find a place where I could read about the hatching of a dream like this, all the way through to it’s manifestation. I really wanted to read about someone who set out in the direction of this seemingly very large dream with nothing and created the whole thing from scratch. There are lots of writings similar to this, with pieces of what I was looking for, but nothing EXACTLY what I was looking for.
So I decided to create it myself. To write from the very beginning of this dream all the way through to it’s manifestation. The dream begins with going to back to school. In May I begin pursuing my Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design with a minor in Spanish. But after Christmas I’m going to fly to Puerto Rico and spend January 2016 there studying Spanish and immersing myself in the culture. From Puerto Rico I am going to fly to Costa Rica and spend February 2016 also studying Spanish and immersing myself in the culture, but additionally I will be doing volunteer work there. After that I’ll fly to Rio de Janeiro to spend the month of March 2016 studying Portuguese. Then I’ll travel up to Salvador to spend my last month abroad studying Portuguese.
This sounds CRAZY, right? It sounds completely nuts to me, and I have no idea how it will happen. But I know it gets my heart pumping, my blood rushing, and makes me want to jump up in excitement thinking about it. I will write, take pictures, and blog the whole trip. I will also use the photography, writing, and experience to create incredibly beautiful and inspirational poetry/photography books. I will take almost nothing with me. Some clothes, a few bathing suits, a sketch pad, charcoal, my computer, and I will purchase a VERY nice camera and lenses for the journey. I’m very excited to take you on this journey with me as I plan my trip, marketing campaign, funding ideas and write about it all in real time.
Come and live La Vida Loca with me from Nebraska all the way to South America!
Student of the Crazy Life 