As I write this, I am enjoying a rainy morning in Maine on my way to Canada. This will be the first time I travel outside of the United States. It is a bit of a drive from my friends house here in Maine, five hours and twenty two minutes to Quebec City to be exact. We are headed through the heart of Maine on state routes through wilderness areas and I am hopeful we will see a moose.
On my way up to Maine, I listened to a podcast that resonated with me. It was episode #840 of Modern Wisdom with Chris Williamson and Oliver Burkeman, check it out: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdom
During this last week I’ve thought about the changing of the seasons, feeling like there is too little time, and connecting with other people on a deeper level.
The Changing of the Seasons: Autumn
In my August monthly review, I stated that fall was a time for change. Due to the programing of many years of school, September always came with a major life change.
I went from summer vacation hanging out with my friends and working a summer job, to going back to classes and the start of soccer season. Even last year, my first year out of college, I moved across the country to Washington in late August.
This year was the first time I did not have any major change. It has been business as usual and it feels quite odd. It feels like something is missing. So as the leaves change and the weather starts to cool, it feels to me that autumn has yet to arrive.
Too Little Time
This may be just another way of saying the clique phrase that “life is short”. While that is true, I feel that this is a little bit different. Rather than my whole life feeling short, I feel that my life is broken into blocks of time.
I am currently in my pre-kids and still athletically fit block of time, where I want to travel and go on crazy adventures. The next block I imagine will be the settle down, buy a house, get married and have kids block.
The feeling of too little time I experience is the amount of time I believe I have left in the first block. I feel like there is not enough time to go do all of the things I want to do while having to work in between to save up enough money to do them.
As I write this I am getting a clearer picture of the problem. The problem is my self imposed time limit. I am making a prediction that my future self will want to have kids and buy a house in the next ten years, but humans are notoriously bad at predicting the future.
I may not want those things at all, and in fact, the only reason I believe I might want them is because that’s what everyone else does. I think the real issue is that there are a lot of things I want to be doing right now and I can’t do all of them at once.
Also, why am I in such a rush to “do” these experiences? Do I want to enjoy the process of completing them or just check them off a list?
Connecting With Others On a Deep Level
Over the last five years me and my closest friends have began to drift apart. We have developed different interests and our time is spent pursuing our own individual passions. So it seems that the time has come to connect with some new people.
Maybe it’s because I am a self proclaimed introvert, but I have had trouble knowing where to start to meet the people I want to be friends with. I don’t enjoy going to bars or having a night out on the town, so I can’t look in the conventional places.
The more likely place I would meet the type of people who are like me would be group outdoor activities; group cycling rides, group hikes, or the rock climbing gym, but I’ve had trouble finding information on local outdoor meetups or group events.
I need to put more effort into developing new relationships with people I can connect with on a deeper level. Let me know if you have any helpful tips.
As always, thanks for reading and see you next Friday!
