a 25th birthday present to myself

i have been trying to write topical and informative, rather than "personal reflection" type posts (oh and i will! one of my many many new year's resolutions is to blog three times a week...i figure if i make enough resolutions, i can't actually break ALL of them), but i wanted to fill my, like, two loyal readers in on this massive, the clouds open and angels sing,  weight off my shoulders realization i had yesterday.

so i've spent the last two months or so mired in this sort of disgustingly cliched quarter life crisis-y bog of angst. a not insignificant part of that was the persistent anxiety about what i'm doing after i leave nepal. what kind of job should i try to get? what am i qualified for? how will it affect future jobs? where do i even want to end up? maybe i should get a master's after all...no it's a waste of money. i'd like to travel but it all depends on the job situation and how can i plan? and on and ON and on. and you know what? it's really impeded my ability to focus on, not to mention actually enjoy, what i'm doing right now. and yesterday, i just thought:

 eff it. eff. that. noise.

for my 25th birthday, i'm giving myself a gift i'm not sure i've actually ever had in my life. i am letting go of my anxiety about future advancement and achievement. my new plan is to be in nepal for the next six months or so, and to just NAIL it: rock my projects for work, hang out with my awesome friends, have adventures, see the country...and not even think about applying for jobs. then i'm giving myself three months (or until i run out of funds) to travel. who knows when i'll be back on this side of the world again, right? i'm going to see angkor wat, learn to surf in indonesia, eat thai street food, and all that filthy backpacker crap. my travel writer friend even said he'd help me work on pitches so that i can do some writing and maybe even get paid (or at least make my meager funds stretch).

i'm going to end in australia, because over the last year and a half i have been lucky enough to acquire a surfeit of australians in my life...and let's be real: they are just totally my kind of people. i'll road trip, see friends, pick up some part time work, and only then will i settle in to find a "real" job. i can do it as easily from australia as i can from home, and i can do it WAY more easily than i can while trying to get on with things here.

SO if you have suggestions for south and south-east asia travel, or want to come along and be a travel buddy, hit me up.

in the meantime: viva la epiphany.