YOLO

I faithfully updated this blog through my year abroad, a roadtrip through Europe, and my thoughts upon returning to the States. I even plan to continue updating it indefinitely. But you may (or may not) have noticed a brief hiatus while I went on yet another month-long roadtrip, this time across the United States. I will summarize it the best I can, but I felt that even those who live and breathe words like me need a break every once in awhile. So this summer I stopped recording things obsessively in my red notebook. I didn't blog. I didn't even take pictures, although I am taking advantage of my friends' photos. For once I just lived life as it came, moment by moment. This summer, for me as for many graduated seniors, was a YOLO summer.

Yes, I know. YOLO is trite and overused. YOLO is for frat bros. But YOLO is actually not a bad life philosophy. You only live once, so you should live it to the fullest. People seldom regret the experiences they have, but they often regret the things they didn't do. So living with no regrets – fulfilling everything on your bucket list, going on adventures, seizing all opportunities – seems like a pretty good plan to me.

I'm not a good photographer. I have an appreciation for photography, but I dislike being the one behind the camera. I always feel like it's preventing you from really appreciating the moment. I don't want to be taking a picture of how much fun I'm having with my friends, so that later I can reminisce about it. I just want to be having fun with my friends. I feel like taking pictures destroys the integrity of the moment you want to remember. I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize for the pictures (or lack thereof) on my blog. I have made quite an effort with pictures while I was in France, mostly because I wanted to win the CIEE blogging competition. (I didn't.) But that obligation is over now, and I don't intend to continue the effort. I am well aware that long text posts are difficult to read and pictures to a lot to break it up. Tough luck, my dear readers. I am tired of pictures. Yolo.

(Wow, that's awesome! I can use YOLO to justify everything I do!)

So, in short, here's my summer: I went on a 4 week long, 6,000 mile roadtrip with my mom, my French sister, and my two best friends.

Shoshone Falls, Idaho: we jumped off cliffs into a lake full of heavily-tattooed Idahoans. The only fun thing to do in Idaho!

Next stop: Grand Teton and Yellowstone, Wyoming. Yellowstone was exciting as usual, and while camping in Grand Teton a BEAR ate my sister and my mothers' shoes. We also had some great ukelele-strumming around the campfire.

Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and the Badlands: Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse (the Indian monument in construction) were rather unexciting to me, just because there's nothing to experience. You go, you see the monument, and you're done. I suppose it is kind of impressive, but we see pictures of it all the time so we knew what to expect and I wasn't wow'ed. The Badlands, however, were a real highlight of the trip. The spooky landscape is thought-inspiring, less crowded than the Grand Canyon, and (in my opinion) more beautiful.

We then arrived in Minneapolis, to stay with my aunt and uncle who live there. We explored the city a little bit, went to the Mall of America (warning! Highly not recommended for introverts and those with social anxiety!), and then set off for their cabin in the woods in the North Woods of Wisconsin, where we spent a week.

Next stop: La Farge, Wisconsin, where my great-aunt and great-uncle own a farm. We stayed with their son who lives across the street and went on some hikes and went to see a live radio show called Barn Dance (we thought we were going to an actual barn dance, but it turned out to be a lovely bluegrass concert). We also went to the farmer's market and were amazed to see the Amish who were selling their goods there.

Madison is only a 2-3 hour drive from La Farge, and I then had my orientation and registration. I signed up for classes, which I'll talk about later once I get around to writing a post about school. We stayed with my wonderful cousin Ellen who showed my friends around downtown while I did orientation.

After Madison, we drove 24 hours to the Grand Canyon, stopping only for 4 hours of sleep in a hotel outside of Denver. This is not something I recommend to anyone. Fortunately, there were four of us with driver's licenses, but it was still a long and trying voyage.

The Grand Canyon was lovely, and two of my friends and I hiked down the Bright Angel trail only about 3 miles, which took us half the day. It is deceptively difficult, but lovely and worth it.

After the Grand Canyon, we spent another painful day driving to Yosemite. We only ended up spending one day in Yosemite instead of the two we'd planned for, because we were all eager to get home at that point. But we did have a lovely hike up Vernal Falls during the day we were there.

The rest of my summer was more shenanigans in the spirit of YOLO. I showed my sister around the Bay Area, did lots of touristy things, would go places on a whim just to see if it was cool, and did a few things that shouldn't be written about on blogs. And it was wonderful. I love blogging and journaling, and I don't intend to stop either of them. But just for a summer, it was nice to live life unrecorded, without pondering too much the actions and words of the day, just living life in the moment.