I drive a lot. And by a lot I really mean it, a lot. On any given day, when I decide to get out of my house, I spend at least an hour in my car, and it's often more. This has been the trend for a while now, I mean, I got my drivers liscence when I was seventeen (I am currently 24), and everything I do seems to always be at least 20 minutes away.
You would think because I drive so much, I'd be really good at it, but I'm not. I bet the ratio of car wrecks is probably right though (heavy sigh).
Exploring has just become something I do. If I have some dead time, it's not uncommon for me to take a journey down some new roads. I think there are always really interesting things around us at all times. But too often we either don't notice them because we are to busy or distracted to see them, or we never find them because we neglect to go looking for them.
I was driving the other day, and by pure happenstance I ended up driving by a place my parents had brought me to when I was little. I vividly remember being there; playing in the grass, looking at the train tracks. What I never knew was where the place actually stood, it honestly could have been in another state. The crazy thing about being a kid is that your are very rarely concerned about the process. You aren't typically concerned with where the money your parents have comes from, or how that said money makes it possible for you to turn the light on and off in your room, or that wasteing water actually costs your parents money, or that being on time is a thing that you have to do when you are an adult and that's the reason why they can get so frustrated with you in the mornings.
Growth is often a slow progression that you don't notice until you take a moment to stop.
Its like the change that happens between winter and spring, which is something I love. I always remember winter ending, and I always remember the daffodils blooming in mid-March. However, in between then and about this time of year, literally millions of subtle changes begin to happen. Leaves start to sprout, the sky slowly gets more blue, the sun feels just a little bit warmer day by day, and then suddenly you look up and realize, "Oh, hey. It really is spring."
The question, "Do you know how to get there?" Is not something you are asked until you are a mildly responsible person. When you are simply a passenger you're not concerned with directions, you can lay in the back seat (in a way that probably makes the seatbelt completely ineffective) and watch the powerlines go up and down in the window, or you can take a little nap, or you can daydream, or even play while listening to your brother's awesome discman.
When you are driving, knowing where you are going is kind of your job. I will admit to you that a good 30% of the time I'm completely lost, but I have more than my fair share of common sense, so it doesn't take me long to figure it out. Plus, GPS exists now, and has gotten me out of many a jam. Directions are hard for me because I thrive on landmarks, and most people just explain the roads. I can't remember things if it's just a bunch of numbers and a sequence of stop signs. But tell me about all the things I will see on the way and I will undoubtedly get there.
Too often we underestimate the process. We speed because we need to get places faster, we get frustrated over inefficiency, we forget to teach people along the journey because it may serve as an inconvience. We miss opportunities, because the we want the finished product more than the adventure (that kind of hurt my heart a little bit to write). We often miss the fact that a journey well made makes the final destination that much more interesting, and more beautiful.
The thing is, once I know how to get somewhere, I very rarely forget. Its all like connecting dots, and connecting those dots to more dots, and drawing little lines between preexisting dots, because when you connect dots the world you know gets a little bit bigger and the world you don't gets a little bit smaller.
And I want my world to be filled with dots, and lines, and more dots.