Monday, January 16, 2006

Feeling Adventurous

I know I mentioned in an earlier post the possiblity of joining the Peace Corps, or something similar, and disappearing for a while.

I really think I will. After my Scandinavian excursion, the continuation of normal life as before oozes boredom and complacency to me. I want to go to something good, and outrageous. I was researching graduate sociology programs yesterday afternoon, and that made me kind of excited for that, but not yet.

Not yet. I feel very much still in the midst of my collegiate entitlement to adventure, despite lacking the fiscal resources to do some of it. An old friend I was bowling with last night was telling me the scheme he hatched, petitioning the National Geographic Society to fund him and 3 others to explore unnamed 12,000 ft. mountains in Alaska, and despite the fact that the idea of ice climbing scares the shit out of me, it's the kind of thing I would really want to do. Stupid, probably, but bold, and awesome.

Yesterday I was also reading a book for my environmental sociology class, about the secret lives of everyday things, all the waste and energy that goes into them. At the end, the author was talking about how easy it is to get down about these problems, that are so huge and so impossible to grasp as an individual. "What am I supposed to do, join the Peace Corps?" they ask, mostly in jest. It's statements like these that dispel my doubts and affirm to me that yes, I am strange and idealistic enough to run away and try to save the world.

I mean, really, starving's not so bad if you're busy. Try it.

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