I have never seen the ocean. Is that odd? I feel like everyone I have known has been to the ocean except I. Literally. To be fair, I did venture to Florida as a baby and there are pictures of me crawling in the sand and on my large forehead was a bonnet for some reason. Why was I wearing a bonnet?….. Was my mother trying to hide my freakish forehead? Or did my parents secretly want a second daughter? Anyway….I obviously have zero memories of the ocean and I would love to create my own. If I have to wear a bonnet again to see the ocean, I will!
To be honest I have never really seen America all that much. I have had some times in Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee, but there is a lot out there I want to experience. Places to see, people to meet. I might even find a new place to live. Part of me thinks I will end up in Chicago at some point. I wouldn’t mind it at all. I have friends who hate Chicago and Illinois all together. It is so constant and typical for people in Illinois to say it. I roll my eyes at all of them. Sure, run from your problems, try to find your garden of Eden or a place where you will find “completion.” Chances are the same stuff you ran from this state will follow you there. Some problems will fade, sure, but new ones are bound to find you. There is no such thing as completion, so take your hits, dust yourself off, and try to find a silver lining, or cease being happy.
“But Tyler! There were over 700 people murdered in Chicago last year!” Yeah, but also that is in a population of 2.7 million. I am not a gambling man, but if I was I would like those odds and take my chances. I have friends that live there, and some prefer it over this cesspool I see every day.
Every great writer travels and maybe I am not “great” but I feel this would help me, experience new scenes and meet different people rather than the broken people that talk to me while crying in their beers. I am not looking for completion, I am looking for experiences to live an extraordinary life. I do not have the shackles most people have to pin me down. I have more freedom than most at this age, and I am still feel as invincible as I did when I was 20. The world can be my scotch, and I would like to drink every drop that I can before the reaper closes my eyes at last. I spent most of my twenties being just stone cold drunk, (Especially the summer of 2016) but there is so much out there where I can drink at.
I want to visit the graves of Shannon Hoon and Edgar Allan Poe, I want to bowfish gators in the south, eat real lobster rolls on the east coast, hike the red woods on the west coast. Drink whiskey on Bourbon street, hunt wild boar, stay in one of those hippie Buddhist camps for a weekend, and maybe see the cold star filled sky in Alaska, maybe venture to Ireland or backpack in Europe like some of us tried to plan years back….So many “wants” to fill my empty soul.
Even if I can’t do all of that (I will) at the very least I want to see a beach and view the ocean for a real first time.
I feel most people run on an hour glass of life, sand spilling quicker and quicker until it is too late. I will just refill mine from the sand down by the ocean.
In The Spider's Web 