Fourth of July in Salt Lake City

Wait what? How does that make any logistical, financial, travel sense? How does that make any sense at all? It doesn't. Ha. It truly doesn't, but sense and rationality are irrelevant in matters of the heart. Okay, so who is this, and where is Amanda? Where is the Amanda that plans her days weeks in advance, that hates to pay more than $30 for any article of clothing or anything for that matter, that is rational living defined? There is no way she would change all of her plans, book last minute tickets, and travel half way around the world at the drop of hat...I've changed a lot in the two months I've been over here. Not changed in the way that I'm a different person; I still stand with the same values, same sense of self, same future aspirations, but I've learned to view life as an experience as opposed to a checklist. I've realized things about the life I was living that were keeping me from truly experiencing. I lived a schedule. An impenetrable continuous stream of planned tasks and events. Perhaps I did this out of choice, perhaps out of necessity as life does just get busy, or most likely because I've known nothing else in my life. But I'm living a different life now. A life that is in moment and a life where I am so in tune with what Amanda wants never mind all of the rationalities. After living at both extremes, an extreme schedule and completely in the moment,  I'm not naive to believe the latter is feasible forever. In all honesty it's almost as exhausting as a schedule. I believe that real life falls somewhere in the middle of the two. A balance of priority and spontinaity, of rationality and free spirit. I have found, though, that unwinding 26 years of a tightly wound scheduled mind takes work so I'm using this whole travel opportunity to make myself comfortable with what once would have been so uncomfortable. Allowing myself to learn and enjoy the components of the balanced life I eventually desire. So I did it. I Cancelled all of my accommodation for the next week, and only 40 hours after making the decision, I caught the first bus of the journey to Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Why Utah? Well you see, there's this guy...

I've mentioned him in a few of my previous blogs. He was my missing Romeo in Venice. The man who manages to steal my heart every time life gives us the opportunity to be together. Life has still not given us that opportunity; he was brought back to Fayetteville three weeks before I left to travel the world. That's been our story for a while. We met a few years ago. Both solidly starting our careers, independent with goals and plans for the future. Life took us down separate paths for a while, and honestly as mid-twenty something's it should have. This notion that "settling" down has to or should happen immediately after college is for the birds. Seriously, it's annoying to hear. I know that I've learned more about what I want, what I don't want, and what I'm capable of giving in a relationship in the past few years than ever before. Most importantly, though, by taking the time to figure out me, To make mistakes, to go on too many awkward first dates, to live as a single professional for a while, I learned to appreciate what is true and to see through all of the romanticized, infatuation games that plague the dating scene these days. Honesty. Trust. Non-negotiatable. I consider myself so lucky to have a man in my life that not only agrees on that with me but also lives it. So even though life decided not to give us that easy opportunity to be together, this time we decided to hang on. 

I made it to Utah after 32 hours of buses, trains, and planes. Let me tell ya, I looked real pretty :/ , but I was met with a large bag of apples, cliff bars, and beef jerky. Yeah, If that's not love... We spent the first few days camping in the Unitas with his family.  Wow.  Beautiful. Breathtaking mountain views. I actually mean breathtaking pretty literally here. Altitude is a crazy game changer in the art of breathing, but nonetheless a great time to just be and enjoy the summer with people I'm growing to care a lot about. Alex and I spent the Fourth at Park City. We took the ski lift up the mountain and raced the alpine slide. He won. I had some technical difficulties that prevented my victory, but I'll give it to him nonetheless. The roller coaster though was great. We rode together which I'm really not sure was allowed. 300 pounds in a tiny cart racing down a mountain. I wish now that I would have purchased the action photo if only for your entertainment. It was great. We ended the night watching the sunset on a trail near his house. Pretty perfect if you ask me. 

  Don't laugh! His idea :) just kidding. Mine. It's cute right?!

As for Crossfit, of course there was Crossfit. I win here :) We didn't go to an actual Crossfit box, but we found the most functional non-Crossfit gym I've ever seen.  Fully outfitted with a Rouge rig, rings, lifting platforms, everything we needed. We mostly made up our own wods. I let him pick a few of the movements. It was good to race someone I knew again. Like coming home. 

Just like all of the places I've been on this journey, the time flew by, and before I knew it, I was boarding the plane to head to my next stop. I had never been to Utah so the adventure here honestly never stopped, and it was another reminder for me that there is so much to experience and explore right in our American backyards. Like I've mentioned time and time before, Europe is just a stage in my life. A ground for learning ways of life I want to carry with me. I'm still absolutely loving my journey, but it was great to be on American soil to celebrate the Fourth. There's just something about the Red, White, and Blue. As for Alex and I, If life doesn't want to give us the opportunity to be together, we'll make our own. He'll be joining me on this journey in a few short weeks. Our own love story. Who knows, maybe Jake Curreri and the 540 worms will be reading our Nicholas Sparks book in a few years. :) I'm just kidding. I don't believe in fairy tales. I believe in reality, and honesty, and trust, and commitment, and work on both sides. But I do know for the first time in my life that when someone is that someone, you'd give anything for them. Perhaps even the world. 

I know I'm a little bit behind on posting. This world traveling and living in the moment stuff takes up some time, but I won't skip anything I promise. Thank you to everyone for reading and for you continuous support. Truly one blessed little lady. Lots of love.