he offered her the world....

...she said she had her own.

I've been doing a lot of brainstorming as to what the next chapter of my memoir I will one day write will be and feeling like I have the world at my finger tips... I'm not too sure where I will go from here. The world is my oyster, as they say (whoever they are), so I've been weighing out all my options and I have been trying to come up with one of those "five year plans" all those adults talk about... Mr. Hallam once told me that you have to begin with the end in mind and so I have been trying to visualize where I see myself at the age of 27 and because I can't seem to get past how old that sounds, I have not successfully envisioned myself doing anything at almost thirty... I know what I would like to see on my resume: a masters degree at the University of Texas in Austin, a membership to NANN, the critical care nurse certification, volunteerism. I know I will like to have traveled: backpack Europe for a summer, travel nurse in Australia, hike the Inca Trail. I know I would like to keep challenging myself: triathlons, standardized tests, etc but none of these life experiences seem to be pointing in a direction that brings me any closer to settling down or attaining any sort of stability in my life. While I love the fact that I honestly cannot remember the last time I have felt "bored," I know that I cannot average 2..5 hours of sleep a night and still function for forever. I have about six months (this is a self-selected time frame of just how much longer I can physically/mentally handle living in LA) to figure out what direction I will go in from here... I could head back East and move to NYC, get it out of my blood to live the Carrie Bradshaw life of Broadway plays, art gallery openings and great sushi on every city block. I could go north and breathe fresh air for awhile, explore the Great Outdoors and get away from city life for awhile. I could go abroad and immerse myself in a fabulous culture refreshingly different yet slightly similar enough to still work in the same profession... like Australia! =) It's tough making life decisions that will impact the course of the rest of your life. Tired of being an oyster, I've decided to try life as a pearl for awhile ... by spending the next seventeen days re-entering into my pseudo-retirement with Grams.