I wanted to spend a little time talking about what lead up to this trip as there was a fundamental shift in how I approached travel. You see, before this trip I had mixed feelings about travel, going back even further, I was kind of against it. At one point in my life, I didn't understand the idea of wanting to see things for yourself. Taking a trip to Iceland sounded more like a waste of money compared to watching a documentary from my home.
The first shift came from some travel I started doing for work. This was, for the most part, all travel inside the states. This was an eye-opener on how easy it is to travel by plane and get a hotel and all that Jazz. I did, also, take a few trips out of the country to Sri Lanka, the Philippines, and Ghana. These experiences made me value seeing the world with my own eyes and experiencing cultures and environments in person. But these types of trips tend to be few and far between as they are "special." That's where the next shift comes into play; it won't happen unless you make it happen.
Brittany was going to go out of town for a weekend trip with her friend. So I, nearly joking, said I was going to go out of town myself. I regret saying that as soon as the words were out of my mouth. What was I committing too? What I didn't realize at the time is that I had a lot of fear about doing something on my own as I'd never gone out alone for more than a day. I'm happy to report that is was incredibly easy once I just committed. All I had to do was find a place to spend the night and make a loose plan for what I wanted to see.
For whatever reason, this opened the world up to me and how I needed to take advantage of the time I had left in Colorado. I was about to move back to Oregon in two months, and there was still a lot to see.
Photography Date: 4-28-17
Writing Date: 3-19-18