Power of Wind Contest Submission

Hello there!

If you’re looking for my Power of Wind submission, please check your inbox.  I had wanted to post it on this blog, but the PDF would not show up.  Accordingly, I sent a follow-up e-mail with the PDF attached to the e-mail.

Thanks for considering my application!

C

If you could do anything, what would you do?

I would probably pack a bag and travel the world.  It’s ironic, because I have very little wanderlust and yet I want to do that.  I guess I want to see what’s out there, what else there is to worry about, what else there is to be happy about.  I suppose I want an escape, some clear way of realizing that this is the next chapter of my life.

I wouldn’t go backpacking though.  Because as much as I would love this rite of passage and start living in hostels and using public bathrooms, I can’t fathom that.  I don’t know why.  Honestly, I’m silently laughing at myself that I have such “high expectations” but I cannot compromise that.  I just can’t.

I would like to visit the United States.  I would like to see Alabama and Tennessee; I want to see the South.  I want to go to Florida again and meander along a long stretch of highway, just to feel the hot air, that unforgiving sun, and just bask in this extreme weather that I could never call my own.  I want to visit California and Oregon and Washington; I want to explore the rainforests and lay along a beach strip that’s only known by the locals.  I want to walk, I want to run, I want to stand still and close my eyes.

I want to stop worrying about everything.  I want it to seem insignificant, I want to rise above it all.  I know I am human but I want to be invincible.  And frankly, I’m okay with knowing I can’t do everything, but that won’t stop me from trying.  I want to travel the Great Walls of China, visit South Africa and see it for myself, and the storied places that have been quietly mentioned in War & Peace.  I want to be cultured on my own accord, explore the world in a way that is unconventional, I want to write, I want to breathe, I want to listen, I want to live.

I want to do it alone though.  Is that odd?  All these adventure that I’ve got racing through my head are experienced through my eyes only, without friends nearby.  I want to venture this journey alone, is that bold?  Or is that cowardice?

So in all, I guess if I could do anything, I would leave where I am and go somewhere I am not.  I would grow up.  I would grow up somewhere else.