I blame this all on my going to see Across the Universe.
Why can't I move to California and live in a van? Why can't you? What in society has restricted us and caused our brains to not allow us to have that freedom that I know some of us really want and need.
I don't blame University for this, but I think Colleges across the US should encourage, hell, require that all of us take a year off of school and instead of the payment for tuition, let us move to NYC for a year, go to Europe, Australia, japan, Hawaii, Utah, Canada, even California. Because we are going to regret our lives later if we don't just see the world and do whatever it is we want to do.
In Japan there is a new trend going on where students, like ourselves, just finish getting their high school degrees and work part time jobs while they focus on living life instead of the main stream corporate life style their country has pushed on everyone. They focus on seeing Japan and fashion and being themselves.
Last night I was driving home from my job and I was just jamming out to the Across the Universe soundtrack. I was listening to Helter Skelter (which is sung by a girl that has a voice like Janis Joplin) and I was just freaking out. My windows were down, I was banging on my steering wheel and screaming the lyrics. It was about 11 pm and I was getting close my neighbor hood and I got this little smirk across my face that wouldn't go away. And I just drove right past. And the back of my mind said "Lets go to California." I only have about 250 dollars to my name right now. But I was bent on going to California. And mind you, I live in Houston Texas...
Then the song ended....the little angel on my shoulder shoved the devil into a corner and said "what the HELL are you doing?! Go home!" I was pretty close to the freeway and I did a U-turn and came home.
But Why didn't I go? Because I need to get a degree and do a good job and focus on making a life and a family instead of living my life NOW! My parents almost did it to, they almost sold everything and toured America on the back of a motorcycle, but my mom got pregnant with me. And boom, that couldn't happen. So before life grabs me and pulls me under, why not move to California and live in a van?
I know that the free love generation had a lot of repercussions that most of them were not very pleased with and that they were a big minority, but what happened to that? Why does our generation not have that?
We DO have a War going on? So where are those hippies? Writing blogs on here and making videos on YouTube directly to the president telling him to stop...Why are we not on Washington trying to stop it? Where are those free love girls wearing flowers in their hair in San Fransisco. Where did they all go?
To be honest I might save my money for the next year, and when the next fall semester starts, pack up the important stuff, and travel the US for a while. Live off the fruits of the land (or just fruit from the grocery store) and go to the Grand Canyon, go to the Mississippi River, go to the Boston, Florida, see the Forests of Orgean, The Great Lakes, I want to see Alaska. I want to live in a shitty apartment in NYC, I want to dance around a fire on the beach in California while someone plays a guitar, I want to climb the tallest trees and most of all I want to be 40 years old and look back on my life and say "Wow, I saw everything didn't I?"
I can tell your right now that these lyrics are exactly how I feel right now:
Blackbird- The Beatles
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to be free.
Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.
Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly
Into the light of the dark black night.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise,oh
You were only waiting for this moment to arise, oh
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
Peace.
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how closely i can relate to your blog. to be honest, this past summer me and my boyfriend just packed up and moved to leadville, CO. we lived the moutain lifestyle for 3 months and it was amazing. but then the "oh shit, i have to pay for college and work for a living" came into my mind and I forced him and myself to move back to El Paso, TX. oooh, i regret it. I feel so stuck in this stuffy life. haha ode to freedom...one day i will move to cali and live out of an old hippie van and then one day i will live in a cottage in the bahamas. after all, the best form od education is experience.
I feel ya, one day we all will...
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My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Shotgun of Enlightenment.
Get yours.
i have always wanted to travel..i still do. im only 24 i guess i still have time. but you need money to travel and i am a broke college student. how in the heck will i travel. i wish i still felt positive about life but as you get a little bit older you just get tired. of course i know im still young and there's many more beautiful things i havent yet had the pleasure to appreciate, like having children, but im still tired.
Yes, yes, yes. After we get out of college and have proved to the world we're responsible adults, we should do it. Let's do it!
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Always know where your towel is.
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/Farasha
I wanna live the hippie lifestyle with MONEY. you might feel free as a bird with the wind in your hair, blablabla, but then you have about fifteen dollars left, you need gas and you haven't eaten since yesterday.
When I get my masters I promised myself and the husband that I'm going to travel the world, eating all sorts of delicacies. Starting with Japan or Thailand, I'm not sure which.
thats the point I'm at now, I figure I might as well build up a decent amount of money so I can just see the world and not worry about work.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Shotgun of Enlightenment.
Get yours.
ok you have right idea...and im right behind you....
I very nearly packed up all my stuff and moved to California (to live with my hippie of a dad) at the end of my junior year of high school. My mom found out and man did I get into trouble. Then I almost did it again after I graduated... my mom again refocused me on studies. At the end of freshman year when my mom was sick of me and kicked me out, I was all set and ready to go to Cali and live with my dad when my dad had to move across the country to New York. So much for that plan!
But I do know how you feel. It's like we live such structured lives that if we veer even slightly off course, it's like our professional lives are done for. I think it is because we are a culture driven by money and the cost of living multiplies each year that we just can't afford to break out of society, challenge authority, and as you said, move to California and live in a van!
and thats something I love and absolutely HATE about our culture. Why do you have to make so much money? Why can't you just be happy? I am interested to see what comes of our generation once all of us reach college level or get out of college. Will we do the same thing our parents have done or will the face of what they created completely change by our new age ideas...
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Shotgun of Enlightenment.
Get yours.
if only everyone could be as affected by this blog as me. thank you.
You are very welcome :) I am glad my words have helped in whatever it is you needed help with.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Shotgun of Enlightenment.
Get yours.
Make sure you go and live (Park your van!) in the Redwood forests south of Eureka, Ca
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Eureka,+CA,+United+States+of+America&ie=UT...
Super hiking, breath taking scenery.
They can keep most of the rest of the state.
A fact is always better than an ideal
Pretty much, you're blog is the best ever because it's got a beatle's song in it. That's really what sold me. =D
I think that everyone has had these feelings at one time or another. With everything that today's generation is tied down with, it's hard not to. We are all pressured somehow, what with the increasing demand to do well in school, the rising college entrance requirements, the increasing prices on everything, especially gasoline, the need to have to work for that money, the demand for popularity and acceptance, the quest for moral truths, and just the effort to discover who we are. Because of these pressures, there is an increase in wanting to get away from it all, to obtain freedom. It is up to us to decide whether we want to pursue this freedom, or dismiss it as something unattainable and continue on with our stressful lives.
I think that the reason that most people have trouble with today's pressure-filled lives is because they simply do not know how to balance work with play, and I mean that with the utmost seriousness. If your life is strictly work, with hardly any play, you will honestly go insane from the pressure. Conversely, if one gives up all their academic and career goals to obtain true freedom, then doubt and regrets will ebb at our minds. To truly be happy, we must learn to balace the two, confinement from society and freedom from conformity. Can we truly ever be free? The answer is no. We will always be captives of something in some way, whether it be captives to society, or captives to our minds. If we do as you say, and give up everything to go and live off the land, or whatever it may be, then you can be certain that you will always wonder what you could have become if you had not done so. You will be a captive to your mind. It's a lose-lose situation. We just need to accept that we will never truly be free and try to make the most out of life.
The statement below is true.
The statement above is false.
Wouldn't Leave it for the world.
Except maybe when i become disgusted with society and choose to live as a hermit in the woodlands of the pacific NW or jungles of Costa Rica.
but with that aside i must say, if anyone wants to come to cali and start a hippy commune n SF im complete game.
Jus because you live a free life doesnt mean you cant go to college. Just dont let it bog you down. make college work around YOUR terms, not vis-versa.
Oh, and the girls with flowers in their hair are still here in SF. you just have to look for them. Somewhere around Haight and Ashbury Street. You can also try the annual hippy festival it takes place there in June.
We don't have to be captives people! we DO have a choice! to live sustainably is to live freely. you wont need anyone else unless you ask for it.
But thats just a heads up from your not so local California Hippy ^_^ v
Peace.
Wouldn't Leave it for the world.
Except maybe when i become disgusted with society and choose to live as a hermit in the woodlands of the pacific NW or jungles of Costa Rica.
but with that aside i must say, if anyone wants to come to cali and start a hippy commune n SF im complete game.
Jus because you live a free life doesnt mean you cant go to college. Just dont let it bog you down. make college work around YOUR terms, not vis-versa.
Oh, and the girls with flowers in their hair are still here in SF. you just have to look for them. Somewhere around Haight and Ashbury Street. You can also try the annual hippy festival it takes place there in June.
We don't have to be captives people! we DO have a choice! to live sustainably is to live freely. you wont need anyone else unless you ask for it.
But thats just a heads up from your not so local California Hippy ^_^ v
Peace.
thank you everyone for making my blog the highest ranked post for a while. It truley made my day, :)
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Shotgun of Enlightenment.
Get yours.