Day 13 ~ Vacation

Today = Somewhere I'd like to move or visit.

So many new places I would like to visit!  I'd also love to revisit several old favorites like Florida beaches, Vegas fountains, Big Cedar mountains, and NYC parks and museums.  All the vacations, please!!

At some point in life, I would love to see parts of Alaska, Switzerland, Greece, Ireland, Italy, England, etc.  I want to go tour the Museum of the Bible in DC and the 9-11 Memorial Museum in NYC.  And my first choice on new places I want to visit = Paris, France!  To see the Eiffel Tower, the Sainte-Chapelle chapel, the Notre-Dame Cathedral, the Louvre Museum, etc., and to just walk around the Paris streets and visit the happy French bakeries!! =)

(Sainte Chapelle - so beautiful!)

An obvious must-see!

I've spent lots of time thinking about places I might move, but in the end, I'm far more likely to stay close to family and stay in a job where I feel comfortable and not overwhelmed!  Last year, I seriously considered a move to Texas, which is still pretty close and would offer a significant pay increase.  (By seriously considered, Mom and I went and toured several courthouses with her Texas CR friend, Sandy, then I did all the preliminary stuff and Mom and Dad went with me to The Woodlands near Houston to take the Texas CSR test -- I aced 3 out of 4 sections, but you have to pass it all at once, so I failed, but I'm confident I could pass it on a second attempt.  The pay would more than double my current salary, but the work load and hours would also increase drastically, and after seeing several reporters who seemed stressed and overwhelmed, I realized it wasn't worth it to me.  Sarah's the only Tulsa friend I ever talked to about this - I try to keep the outside opinions to a minimum when I know it'll be a big, hard decision for me.  I want to feel like I made the choice without being heavily influenced, and I do feel that way now.)  I'm unlikely to move outside the state of Oklahoma, but I do hope to travel and have some fun vacations and new adventures ahead, to keep growing and moving forward in life even if I don't make a physical move to a new home! =)  The idea of deliberately becoming a single mom is both exciting and daunting to me, but I don't want to miss out on something amazing because I was afraid to step out of my comfort zone bubble.

Along that line of thought, this blog on freedom by Joanna Gaines caught my attention this morning:

"I say all of these things as someone who prefers sure and steady, who still routinely chooses safety as my default setting. So I get the logic of not fixing something that technically isn’t broken. Yet, while I may naturally be a creature of habit, I believe there is always something valuable and worth unearthing within all of us. I’m not going to pretend it’s not scary to dig in, to fight for something within yourself that you may not even be able to name. But that’s nothing compared to the aftermath should we choose to pretend that it’s safer to stay the same. Every day, every hour—we get to decide who we are meant to be. The breath in our lungs is the official declaration that we’ve got more growing to do.  I believe there’s a whole world of untapped potential buried within me, hoping that I’ll be brave enough to unearth it. I also believe there’s a whole world of untapped potential within you. And it’s hoping, waiting to see if you’re willing to set it free."  ~Joanna Gaines