I Think It's Important To E X P L O R E . . .

Really, I do. We have this whole world at our finger tips -- so many different cultures, cities, rolling hills, road-side diners. When I was a little girl, I told my mother that I wanted to live each year in a different place, simply so I could expereince the feeling of what it means to be a true part of said-place, & not just be a tourist. Now is the time for me to do just that. 

There are so many things I want to say; so many things I want to write about. The running list I keep is a compilation of singular moments, that will someday hopefully all come together to create something beautiful -- 

The time I was at a half-star motel in Arizona & saw a girl in an old high school sweatshirt sitting on the steps smoking a lonely cigarette. 

The feeling that goes along with sitting alone on your porch at night; listening to old "annnd here's Frank Sinatra!" tracks while eating Chinese out of cute little boxes as the breeze takes control of the world around you and sends a single soda can clicking down the empty street, momentarily interrupting poor Frank & the boys. 

When you take on a solo road trip, and that indescribable feeling of freedom hits you every time you realize the power & independence you hold in your hands as you grasp that wheel. 

When you cross a state line for the very first time, perfect song escaping on full volume out your open windows, and you know in your heart you will never be able to experience that "first" again. 

That one night you sat there under your hometown stars with the three people that mean the most to you in the world, playing cards by candle light & pretending like your universe wasn't about to be turned upside down in a few days by the deceptive force that commonly goes by the name of "college". 

Exploring is more than landmarks and theme parks. It's all of those feelings, expereinces, moments & more; and it's the people you expereince them with. So go drink a beer in Nashville; slide up onto a New York barstool & order a Manhattan like it's nobody's business; pop open a bottle of sparkling champagne in Paris. And you know those beautiful human beings who love you because you're you? Who you can't imagine living without? Pack them in your suitcase and bring them along. 

Someday, I will write a book. Someday, you'll be walking through Barnes & Noble and see my name there, on the "Up & Coming Fiction" table, between Maupin and Moyes. And your eyes will do a double-take. You'll pick it up, and some line like "I went to high school with this girl" or "Wow, when I knew her she was so quiet, is this really hers?" will run through your mind. And I hope you'll want to read it. 

It will be filled with moments like the ones above, and many more that I have not expereinced yet. So I suppose I'm just as in the dark as you are, friend-that-just-picked-up-my-future-novel. Who knows what's filling those pages; I sure don't, at least not yet. But I can assure you they will be living, breathing words that I hold dear to my heart -- and I hope you will be able to get some life out of them too. I hope they will encourage you to go out and start your own mod-podge of moments. You can't go looking for them, you simply have to go out and wait for them to find you. They will, I promise - and when they do, you'll be ready. You'll know when they arrive because a familiar yet completely unique sensation will come over you, and you'll know you absolutely, without a doubt, need to write this down.

xoxo, lauren