I consider myself something of a wanderer. People here have started to ask me if I see myself settling in Colorado long-term. My answer is that I have no clue whatsoever. I can see myself here in this area and in this job for around five years total. I can't see further than that, and I suppose I could even change my mind about that sooner. Here is what I do know. Life can start to feel stagnant, even when you are having amazing experiences with great friends or your family. Life can start to feel stagnant even when you are living in a place where you have grown and changed and feel like you truly belong, if you live there long enough. I am feeling better about living here as more time goes by, especially knowing that I get to move downtown soon. I have missed the energy and opportunity of living in the heart of a city and connected to everything.

Having said that, I still miss Chicago and honestly think I always will. It is part of my heart and soul. It's hard to describe. It's just a complete sense of belonging and acceptance and having become who I am there. If I were to move back I would miss the mountains in the same way though. Why can't we be everywhere we want to be at once?

I also miss Kansas City and my family as well. I wish I could be there to see my family weekly instead of every four or five months. I want to see my beautiful nephew learn and grow. Kansas City shaped me too.

I miss people every time I visit and have to leave or every time they visit me and have to go back. I try to avoid seeing some social media posts because if I keep living in the past I won't be able to eve be fully present.

I've been thinking about this a lot clearly. But being a wanderer is just part of who I am. It's the hardest thing in the world to move on and leap and try new things, but it is always worth it. And part of this need to wander also means I have crazy, huge wanderlust.

I just got back from an amazing trip to Alaska. I went with a tour group called Alaska Outdoors. They lead adventure tours more off of the beaten path in small groups. There were nine of us on this tour, plus our awesome guide who basically knew everything about everything. We traveled from Anchorage to Whittier to pick up the ferry to Valdez. The ferry ride to Valdez was 6.5 hours long. We were super lucky and got amazing weather the whole ride. It was the longest I have just enjoyed scenery and done nothing else (except a nap here and there) probably ever. View after view after view.

We set up camp just out of Valdez by and amazing waterfall. The next day we did sea kayaking among icebergs! They warned us not to get too close to icebergs as they can flip at any moment as the water warms them and most of an iceberg is invisible so you can't even tell how big they are. We nearly got flipped when we approached an iceberg the guide said looked "safe," lol. It was kinda awesome. After Valdez, we went to Wrangell St.-Elias national park. We stayed in super cute cabins and got to hike along the glacier. Our last stop was the Matanuska Glacier. We got to camp with a glacier view. In the morning we walked along the safe parts of the glacier.

My major takeaways from the trip: It was so so so nice to be mostly unplugged for a week. Everyone was super nice and fun, and we all engaged with each other and the scenery instead of staring at our phones and social media. It was relaxing. Alaska is huge and amazing and I will definitely be going back.