I have a final later today at 10:30 a.m., and I didn’t study yet. Am I going to pull off an all-nighter? Probably not, it’s not worth it. Anyway, I decided to blog instead of studying because I’m pretty overwhelmed with the amount of things I need to do before I move to San Diego this January: (1) finish finals and school projects, (2) sell all my furniture by the end of December and move out of philly, (3) work on my side-projects and volunteer work, (4) find an apartment in San Diego, (5) spend time with friends and family, (6) and finally, plan my road trip to the west coast. Yup, I’m going on a frikin’ road trip! I can’t wait to go sight-seeing in Washington D.C., check out a vineyard in Virginia, grab some ribs and pull-pork sandwiches in Tennessee,  try some Creole and Cajun cooking in Louisiana, check out Texas (not really sure what to do there yet… haha), meet some aliens in Roswell, New Mexico, camp out by the grand canyon in Arizona, gamble in Vegas, and finally surf my way down to San Diego – my soon to be hometown. What excites me the most about this trip is not really the trip itself, (although it is very exciting!) but instead, it’s the fact that it’s something that I’ve always wanted to do, and I’m actually about to do it. Another crossed-out item in my EXTREMELY long “list” of things-to-do before I die, before I kick the bucket if you will. I’m certain that each one of us has this “list” of things-to-do, maybe not necessarily written down but I’m sure it’s in the back of our heads. So my question is to you… are you actively trying to cross each item out on that list? Or are you instead passively waiting – maybe for some external force to come help you out with that list (aliens maybe?). In my opinion, the latter is a VERY sad and scary way to live life, no offense. Not having the time is never an excuse. If it’s something you want to do badly, make time! Maybe it’s also about time to “refactor” your priorities and adjust accordingly. It’s also understandable that money can be an issue (esp. for recent college grads with a shit load of loans!), but with the proper goals set in mind, it’s usually not. A typical road-trip around the U.S. could take about $1000-$1200. I know that seems a lot, but if you save instead of spending on useless junk not consistent with your goals – such as splurging every weekend at bars and clubs (I have nothing against that, just an example) – then eventually you’ll have that amount of money. Our brains are such interesting objects, and if you think about it from an evolutionary stand-point, we make excuses because it is the most immediate and comforting thing to do – it actually makes sense! Unfortunately. We blame not doing something to something or someone else to convince ourselves that it was out of our “locust of control.” In a way, diffussing the responsibility. It’s so much easier to stay home and sleep all day as opposed to running 10 miles each morning to train for a marathon. I could come up with so many examples with this topic because I personally made those excuses not only to others, but also to myself. “I can’t do it because of A, B, C, D, …, Z” and a bunch of other alphabets that don’t even exist. So what’s my point in writing all of this (aside from me trying to convince my brain that I’m doing something productive to avoid studying for my final)? Well, I just hope that if you’re reading this and it’s something you can relate to, my words of advice are very simple. If you want to achieve/do/try something, plan and take action. Internalize that statement. Your mother probably told you that when you were a kid but you didn’t hear it because you were too busy playing games. My mom did… and yes, I didn’t hear it because I was too busy playing games – I don’t regret it, final fantasy is frikin awesome! But anyway, today might just be your lucky day because I’m reminding you of that statement. Plan and take action.