Hitchhiking

Well, I have officially moved out of the Big Tan today and into my car. I put all remaining possessions of mine into my car, and thought that I wanted to live out of it. However, when I was talking to my friend Aaron Haslam, I realized the danger of using my car since it isn’t registered. I can’t afford to get a ticket at this time, so, I better not drive it around and park it on the street. It looks like I’ll be getting some practice this week in the art of hitchhiking. I borrowed a backpack from Aaron, and I’ll just try to leave my car in the parking lot of my old house, and make my way around town by getting rides from people.

I consulted Seth about his methods for hitchhiking, and he gave me some pretty good ideas. He said it is better to just go to a gas station and ask for rides, rather than sticking your thumb up by an exit. That’s what I was pretty much planning on doing anyway for my trip, but, it was nice to hear my plan confirmed. Also, for hitchhiking around a city, he said he just waves down cars and asks for rides. I tried it twice today, and it seemed to work just fine. The second guy I got a ride from told me that I should bring mace or something on my trip because of the danger of hitch hiking. It’s interesting, because I’ve always disregarded the worries that people have about hitchhiking, but, I wonder if some of those concerns are more legitimate than I’m making them out to be. So, I decided I’d like to make a study of documented incidences that have happened as a result of hitchhiking. So, if any of you can find any news stories or anything on the subject, please bring them to my attention. Just go ahead and post them in comments about this post.

New Blog

Well, I finally got this blog up and running. I’ve been looking around for a good theme for a while. Although I don’t entirely love this theme, I think it’ll do just fine for now. Maybe once I learn a little better how Wordpress works I can find a theme that fits my needs a little better.

I also just bought a new camera yesterday. I bought the Canon SD780 IS. So, pretty soon I’ll be able to post videos and pictures. I’m going to need that on my trip.

I also submitted some different couchsurfing requests for this next week, since I’m moving out of my house tomorrow. I haven’t heard back from anybody yet, but, maybe that’s because they can tell I’m from Utah. Well, it won’t be hard for me to find places to stay, I’d just like to stay with some random people.

Flakiness?

Well, I did a bunch of packing today. It felt a little weird because I’m trying to pack things up well, since they’ll be sitting packed up for a couple months. But, today was one of the days where the realization of what I’m doing dawned on me. I so excited and nervous to see what is actually going to happen with this. I mean, I can think of all the ideas that I want to. I can have specific purposes and everything. But, until I really get out there and see how difficult it is to accomplish what I want, I’m really not sure how it will be. But, I’m really going through with this.

Ya know what I hate? When you want to do something fun, like go on a road trip, or do something kind of spontaneous. So, you start inviting your friends, and everyone gets excited and says they are “in”. Then, when it really comes down to it, half the people drop out and only a select few end up following through. I think we, referring to humanity, always want to be the kind of people that are down for anything. But, often, we left fears or other daily pressures get in the way of things we want to do. So, when a friend invites us to do something, we all WANT to do that thing, so we express our initial excitement. Then, as the date gets closer, we start worrying about the financial implications, homework that’s due, getting off of work, etc. So, lots of times we don’t follow through. I’m surprised at how often we are all talk. I know I’ve done it plenty of times. But, I’m not going to be that way with this trip. I’m not just going to talk about doing it and then back out at the last moment because of some fears or pressures that I have. I have to go through with it, because if I make a habit of not going after what I want, I’ll have a life void of fulfillment.

Well, those are the main thoughts I had today as I was packing up. Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving. I’m excited. I’ll be starting it at 5 AM. Better get some sleep.

Potential Dangers?

When I tell people about my trip, I get a variety of different reactions. But, one common concern that people have is how safe it is to hitch hike and live with random people I don’t know that well. The most common stated dangers are: I could get raped, robbed, or killed. Well, I’m going to confront those specific dangers in this post.

First off, I want to direct you to a blog I found about a guy who documents his trip hitchhiking across america. Now, his blog is pretty interesting and he definitely has some interesting adventures. But, I’d like to quote him on this topic of dangers to be faced:

“They say hitchhiking is dangerous. Everyone said I’d get robbed, raped and killed. I paid no attention. I figured America’s paranoid, and hitchhiking is safe. You can’t have an adventure nowadays without someone saying you’ll get robbed, raped and killed.”

Now he goes on to say that he NEARLY got raped and killed, but that’s because he thought hanging out with an ex-convict would be good company to have. Anyway, I agree with him that people are pretty paranoid about the dangers that exist, and lots of the fears people have are completely irrational and ridiculous. So, let’s talk about them one by one.

Rape: Now, this is the most ridiculous fear of them all. It hardly even needs discussing. But, I’m pretty sure I can hold my own on this one. If I ever get into an awkward situation, I’ll use my Ninja skills. No worry.

Murder: This one cracks me up. It’s like people think there are mass murderers that just drive down the highway looking for people to kill just for the shear pleasure of it. Seriously? Maybe we need to stop watching so many movies. The only reason I would get killed is if somebody has a motive for doing it. I don’t have money. I don’t have wealthy parents. I’m not from some famous family. So, the only motive somebody might have is if I’m an eyewitness to something. I’ll guess I’ll keep my eyes half closed the whole time, just in case. Trust me when I say that I was in a lot more danger as a missionary then I’ll be on this trip. I have the wits to avoid the kind of places I sought out on my mission. No more likely to die on this trip than I am every day as I drive in my car.

Robbery: Ok, now this is a legitimate concern. I could definitely get robbed on this trip. I won’t have that much, but, I know I could still get robbed. So, here’s my game plan if it does happen:

1. Try to smooth talk the robber out of it. I think even robbers would get excited about my trip and want to help me out. Hopefully at this point I’ll have made a bunch of money on the streets, so maybe I can offer to teach them some of my tricks. I’m not planning on a high probability of success with this one.

2. If that doesn’t work, I’ll have to get away. So, this will entail a quick kick to the man’s pride and joy, or maybe some mace in the face. I’ve already had some offers of friends to buy me a can of pepper spray. They say they’ll feel better about it if I’m armed.

3. If I do get robbed, no worries. I won’t really have that much stuff anyway. Then, I’ll just rely on the kindness of people around me to help me get what I need to finish my journey. I’m sure it will all work out.

Now, I doubt anybody is going away with this blog relieved from the worries they had for my physical safety. However, maybe you can see how ridiculous and unlikely the possible dangers are. I’ll be fine, and I’m sure I’ll come away from this trip with a renewed perspective on how good most of the people in this world really are.

More Doubts and Fears

I’ve started having some worries today about my trip. As I’ve been pondering and trying to figure out what my fears are about, I think I’ve come to a better understanding of why I’m nervous. I’m scared that I’m not going to accomplish what I’d like to accomplish with my trip. I’m scared that I’m going to get out on my trip, and start having second thoughts about what I’m doing. Like, with every job that I’ve had with graduation. I can see myself questioning my motives for doing what I’m doing, and not having sufficient motivation to carry through with it. I really don’t want that to happen. I mean, I’ve been having doubts with every decision I’ve made with graduation, and this is something that I’ve felt really good about and have been really excited to do.

I think one of the main reasons for this fear is the fact that I’m pretty sure there isn’t any job that will excite me. I want to be an entrepreneur, and I really don’t think I’ll feel satisfied until I’m successful in my own venture. So, is the purpose of this trip really to figure out what occupation I could enjoy? Hmmm, now that’s the question. Although I would like to be able to find an occupation that I could enjoy and learn from while I work on my own business, I know that any occupation I have will be seen as a short-term solution to help me accomplish my long-term goals. So, really, I don’t think the purpose of my trip is to find an occupation I would enjoy, although I do think that would be a nice byproduct.

I guess I just really want to be sure of what my purpose for this trip is, because I’d hate to build a blog around a certain idea, and then want to change it half-way through. So, I think my real objective and purpose of this trip is to gain a breadth of experience. I want to understand how things are in the real world. How do people do certain jobs and feel fulfilled doing them? What kind of places are out there that I haven’t experienced? What kind of people can I meet and learn from? What do the big and small companies of this country look like, and how do they operate? What kinds of problems exist in the lives of people all over the country that could be fixed by businesses?

I really think that no matter what I do on my trip, I’ll feel like I’ve accomplished my goal if I learn and grow from my experiences. So, really, I can do the same things I’ve been thinking about. I can try to go to work with different people. I can try to tour different businesses across the country. I can stay with a different person every night. Because, in the end, I just want to have a lot of experience and find out what my next step in life really is. I guess I shouldn’t end my trip until I have a specific plan for the future. I can see myself stopping in a city, seeing a good opportunity for a business, and staying there in order to bring it to fruition.

Now, that’s definitely a hard purpose to portray to other people. It’s been hard enough to tell people what I’m doing as it is. Just saying that I’m hitch hiking across the country really doesn’t do the trip justice. Whatever, I’m not doing this for other people anyway.

On another note, I’ve been trying to establish a schedule that I can maintain while I’m on the road. So, I’ve started doing exercises that I should be able to do, no matter where I stay. I’m doing calisthenics every night and running every morning. It feels great when I’m consistently exercising. How come I ever let myself not exercise regularly? I love running. Every time I go running, I feel so good and I wonder why I’m not 100% on doing it every day. I guess that’s just life. Constantly trying to do what you know you should do.

Well, that’s all the thoughts I got for today. There’s a funny video clip from the new twilight movie that I’ve been showing to lots of people that I’d like to share:

Question to Ask

At church today my friend Aaron Haslam showed a “Mormon Message” in class. It is their newest one, and it’s about being thankful. How fitting, seeing as how it is Thanksgiving this week, right?

Well, this video has an awesome message and just makes me happy while I listen to it. But also, this video got me even more excited to go on my trip. It shows me how there is so much good out there, and how I can learn something from anybody. I’m excited to get out and about and interact with lots of different people. As I was thinking about this video, it also made me think about what kind of question I could ask to people. I think it would be fun to have a specific question that I can ask to every single person I come in contact with. Then, I could make a compilation of all the different responses that I receive from people. The main questions that I genuinely want to know are:

What do you for a living?
Do you love what you do?
Why or why not?
How did you get into your current vocation?

The first two questions are straight forward and are just yes/no questions, so those I could ask pretty easily. The second two questions don’t necessarily have simple answers. I’m excited to see how many people actually love what they do, and how they got into their jobs. I’m not sure if these are the questions I’ll ask everybody, but, this is what I’d like to know from every person I contact. I wonder if there is one question I could ask to get the answers I’m looking for. Maybe I’ll ask the question about if money wasn’t an issue, what would people do with their lives? It might be interesting to see how many of them are currently doing what they would be doing if they had more money. Hmmm. That might be a good one to ask. I’ll have think some more about that.

Problems That Recent Grads Face

I found out about a company that is built around the idea of helping recent graduates learn what to do with their life. They have some really interesting ideas, and I think that this is definitely a problem that is ready for businesses to find solutions to. They are building two different companies, EndeavorPrep and Daily Endeavor. It’s interesting, because although I’ve been struggling with trying to figure out what to do with my life, I never viewed that problem as a business opportunity. I’m surprised by that, because I’m always excited when I see a problem that can be solved by building a business around it. So, on this trip, I’ll continue to think more about the problems that are faced by recent graduates, and I’ll see if there are other solutions that could be put in place to help us. Because really, with all the companies that are out there to help people to find jobs, there really aren’t too many that help people find the right job.

Well, this blog should be getting shut down pretty soon. I’m going to build a Wordpress blog, and I didn’t know any other way to do it except to shut this one down. I’m not exactly sure how long it will take, but hopefully I can get it up and running pretty soon.

Sponsorships?

I was doing some more shopping today for my trip. I’m still trying to decide on what backpack I should get. I know that might not seem like a very important decision, but I think it is. My backpack is going to have all of my possessions in it, and I’ll be carrying it EVERYWHERE. So, I want to make sure it’s comfortable and that it’s not bigger than it needs to be. Anyway, I was at Out N Back, a local outdoor store in Orem. I was there for like the 3rd time looking at their backpacks. Anyway, I was telling their employees about this trip and what I’m planning on doing. They were pretty excited about it and thought it sounded like a good idea. Well, turns out one of the guys I was talking to was the general manager. When I was about to leave, he said they might be able to sponsor me and he could look into getting a good deal from the rep about my backpack. So, I’m pretty excited about that. He said to me, “look, you haven’t even started your trip and people want to help you out”. So, hopefully I’ll be able to get some good deals on gear and what not.

Because of that, I was asking my manager at Runner’s Corner about sponsorships. He said that if I talk to product reps, I could have a good chance of getting some gear and what not. He was telling me that they have certain allotments for what they can get rid of, and so sometimes they like having good opportunities to give out their gear. So, this made me consider calling companies and trying to get sponsorships. But, I like it better if somebody offers to help me rather than me having to ask for it. I think I’ll just keep doing my thing and hope serendipity steps in to help here and there.

Computer Nerd

Well, I feel like I have so much to do before I go on my trip. So, I’ve been working hard these last days doing what I need to to be prepared. I’ve been shopping and trying to find the right sleeping bag, backpack, and camera for the trip. I think I’ve selected what brands and types of equipment I would like, and I wonder if I should wait until Black Friday to try and buy them. I’ve found some pretty good deals online, but I need as much money as I can get right now. I keep being surprised by the expense I’ll have before I leave. I want to pay for everything up front so that I don’t have to worry about any bills while I’m on my journey.

I got this blog up and running, but I think that I would like to do a Wordpress blog now. I just don’t think that Blogger is as robust and adaptable as I’d like it to be. So, I’m going to have to download Wordpress and figure out how to use it. The thing with Wordpress is that you have to have it hosted and so it’s not quite as user-friendly you could say. Well, it’s very adaptable if you know what you’re doing, but I assume there will be a learning curve involved.

While I was getting ready to get Wordpress setup, I realized that my hosting account had been suspended. It has been suspended multiple times because I get a bunch of spam on my forum. I’ve tried talking to the Romanian programmers that I used to build the site, but they hadn’t fixed it yet. So, I decided to go ahead and try to fix it myself. It took me all day, but I learned a ton. I learned about FTP, captcha, phpBB, and many other things. It is pretty elementary stuff to programmers, but I really enjoyed what I learned.

The interesting part is how I enjoyed working on the computer all day. With my jobs, I thought that one of the things I hated was the fact that I sat on the computer and inside all day. Well, I don’t think that’s necessarily the problem. When I was learning and working on my own project, I really enjoyed it and was satisfied when I got things done. I think the problem is me doing the same thing every day and working on projects for other people. I really think that I have to get involved in a startup on the ground floor to be excited about what I do with them. That’s probably why I’m excited about this trip. Because it’s my idea and my project. I might get sick of job-shadowing people, I don’t know.

It’s interesting, because I keep coming up with different ideas for my trip, but I know that things will change once I’m out doing it. I mean, I was thinking that I could probably make enough money every day by just singing and dancing with a hat for money. If not, I could also juggle. I might even be able to write song parodies about my trip and perform them. That sounds like a good idea, but is it something I’ll really want to do while I’m on the road? Maybe not. Well, I’m super tired from my computer adventures today, so, I’m gonna hit the sack.

Making the Plans

Well, while I was at my sales job today I just wasn’t feeling it. I already want to quit and just get ready for my trip. So, I think I’ve decided that I’m going to quit in two weeks so that I don’t have to pay for rent for the month of December. Then, I think I’ll live in Provo for another week and just couchsurf for that week. That will help me learn better how to use the couchsurfing website, as well as get some positive reviews for my couchsurfing profile. I’m excited, but I better work hard these next two weeks so I don’t have to worry about money.

The more I think about it, the more I’d like to try and get sponsors. I mean, even if I don’t get them, I’ll learn from the experience of trying to get them. I was wondering who the people are that I’m going to want to talk to and what not, when I realized that I could probably just talk to Brogg and ask him about it. Brogg started BBSC Endurance sports and I know that he’ll have experience contacting companies for sponsorships. The sponsorship amounts that I’ll be asking for will be so small that I’m sure companies will go for it. Either that, or they’ll wonder if I’m for real. That’s the bigger concern, that they don’t take me seriously. Oh well, somebody will I’m sure. If not, I’ll forge ahead anyway.

I’ve made some more definite plans about what I’d like to do on the trip. I’d like to make my trip a combination of two successful projects I’ve seen: LetMeStayForADay.com and OneWeekJob.com. I want to stay with a different person every night and go to work with a different person every day. I’m not going to set any restrictions on when I’d like to finish or not, because I’m genuinely going on a journey looking for occupations that I could enjoy or cities I might like to live in. Once I find what I’m looking for, I can stop my journey at anytime. However, I don’t want to make any decision until I’ve seen a majority of the U.S. and most of the major cities. Well, tomorrow I’m going to start calling companies for sponsorships. I guess we’ll see how it goes.