Your Personal Legend

The Alchemist is a book about a young boy who embarks on a journey in order to obtain his Personal Legend. A Personal Legend is the very meaning of one's existence. Once you have found your Personal Legend, you have found your true self and reached your highest potential. Now this is ironic because the boy clearly thinks that he will FIND his Personal Legend on his journey looking for it. But what he is missing is the fact that it is not finding your Personal Legend that allows us to find our true selves, its simply the act of looking for it. The stumbles, road blocks, people, questions, and fortune that we run into all adds up to our Personal Legend in the end.

The irony in this book is literally making me LOL when try and relate to it. It's ironic because I am inspired by a trip JJ and I are planning to Paganello. The last blog I wrote about almost exactly one year ago was about crossing Paganello off our bucket list. And here we are. Planning our European adventure gets me more and more excited each day. The trip is going to change both of us as individuals. It is going to strip us of our normal activities, work, and comfort of our own home, and allow us to let our true personality shine.

That is what I am looking forward to most. Finding out more about myself. And about JJ. This trip will help define us.

Bucket List - PAGANELLO 2015

Bucket lists are something that are made as a child. They are built as you go along. They are made because of what we experience through life and what we learn on a day to day basis. Bucket lists are a way of explaining the inner depths of your soul to the outside world without necessarily using any descriptive words. They are also a way for another person to understand a friends soul even more. It's showing the world your inner lion, and what you have come here to live for.

My bucket list is not complete, and I will probably keep adding to the list until I die, but so far I have a couple big ones on my list that I can probably begin to cross off any day now.

When I was abroad in Italy, I visited a friend in Munich, Germany. She showed me around town, and even took me to Fussen to see the Neuschwanstein Castle. (The castle Disney mocked the Disney World castle by) This castle is particularly placed up in the Alps. From the top, it was a view of the Alps I will never forget. It is stamped in my brain. As an avid skier, my urge to jump off the edge and ski to the bottom was real. If I had a pair of skis, I really think I would have done it. Powder and sunshine all the way to the bottom. From that point on, skiing in the Alps was added to my bucket list. I was so close to my goal when I was with my friend in the Alps on this gorgeous castle touring trip, but I was so far away. Once frickin pair of skies away.

The bucket list comes and goes in no particular order. The point is to do them, all of them, whether it be sooner or later.

Another thing on my bucket list is to attend Paganello, the biggest beach ultimate tournament in the world. In Italy when I was playing for the Rome Ultimate Frisbee team (BID), we traveled quite a bit to attend different tournaments around the country. The one tournament that I didn't go to with my team was Paganello, not understanding he significance of the event. I couldn't go because I was very low on funds at the time. And now I simply regret not going. Hentz the bucket list addition.

JJ and I have been given an opportunity to finally attend Paganello in 2015. We have started a donation site for our family and friends to help us raise money to attend this beach tournament, which is both one of our lifetime goals. Please, anyone who has some extra change, help us acheive this goal and attend Paga in 2015. Follow this link to donate: http://www.gofundme.com/KKJJpaganello2015. We appreciate any and all the help we can get. Help us bring home a world cup for USA once again!!!

Crossroads of America

The first day I came to realize I had to change my Michigan ID to an Indiana ID, I cried. I blubbered uncontrollably and had a feeling of sadness I couldn't put an end to. My neighbors in cubicle world at HCCMIS were very curious about my constant sniffles and heavy breathing. They couldn't see me, but they could definitely hear me.

For a day, I struggled to find the happiness in becoming an Indiana resident. The crying was the peak of my struggles, but I was sincerely sad for a couple of weeks. My Michigan ID was one of the only ways I could tell people who I was and where I came from. It made people think "she is a master in snow and doesn't flinch at the cold... she's tough". At least in my egotistical imagination that's what I wish people were saying. That's what I wished people thought about my Michigan lifestyle my whole life. Rustic, camping, non-materialistic, and wholesome. But I have learned a lot since my tears fell. There is much more to Indiana than I imagined.

This past weekend I had some of my best friends from my childhood, as well as college friends, come to visit me in Indianapolis. All of my friends are finding jobs across the country, moving around, and finding where their heart belongs and what they enjoy doing. Being located in Indianapolis, IN allowed each and every one of my friends to be able to meet at my apartment in a decent amount of time. It really wasn't a horrible drive for any of them. If we all had decided to visit Cara in Wisconsin, Kyle would have had a 10 hour drive. If we decided to visit Kyle in Pittsburgh, Kelly would have had a 12 hour drive. It would have not allowed us to gather.

But here I am in Indianapolis, and no matter where my friends and family end up in this country, it will always be a location that is close enough to drive to meet up with friends and family. Indiana is truly shining bright in my heart now that it has the ability to bring us all together again. Michigan may hold my past, but Indiana definitely has the key to my future. And I am grateful.

Handlebar Indy

What to Pack for an Ultimate Frisbee Tournament

My boyfriend made a check list for me to look over every tournament we go to. I am the WORST at packing and always forget something I need. Here's to all of those lady ultimate players who struggle with packing for tournaments!


NECESSARY:

• ibprofin
• ice pack
• sleeping bag
• pillow
• allergy meds
• vicoden
• cleats
• black shorts
• white shorts
• jerseys
• tights
• socks
• skirts
• hairties
• wallet
• water bottle
• face wash
• lotion
• sunscreen
• tampons
• birth control

 OPTIONAL

• long sleeves
• sweatshirt
• hat
• chia seeds
• headphones
• earplugs
• toothbrush toothpaste
• brush
• jeans
• pajamas
• change of clothes
• vitamins
• any other meds.
• leg roller

After everything is in order - make sure to research the tournament a tad. If the tournament has a dance party or Halloween theme or Hawaiian theme, make sure to bring an accessory or two to help you get in character. Good luck and hopefully I will see you all out there! iBang 4 lyfe.

Daydreams Are Sometimes All You Need - 100th Blog Celebration

In honor of my 100th blog post, as well as over 6,000 blog views, I have decided to talk about a very special topic. Daydreaming. 

I just spent an incredible weekend in Chicago with a couple of my best friends, and several new faces that I have never met before. Sandblast 2013 was what brought us all together for this heck of a weekend. This ultimate frisbee tournament in all of its glamor is a 5 v. 5 tourney on the sandy beaches of Lake Michigan. I honestly felt like I was on the west coast. There were even surf boards everywhere (for stand-up paddle boarding of course). The tournament was incredibly well run and the weather was ideal. Sandblast 2013 is probably what my heaven would look like.

Finding myself stuck in a room with 12 people for a weekend is usually a common thing considering I travel a lot for ultimate. We are always trying to save money by bunking up together. This weekend we all bunked with Emily Eddy who lives smack dab downtown Chicago. What a sweet heart! The apartment was totally funked out with her gear-like things because she didn't have a garage. Bike in the corner, golf clubs in another, cat and dog supplies wedged under the winding staircase. The staircase let to her lofted bedroom, which then protruded out to a deck on the roof. It was totally majestic. Even though it was a loft, it fit 12 of us comfortably.

We partied till the sun went down and then partied some more. Making memories and laughing at and with each other about nonsense. Making new friendships and building old ones. And of course lots of sunshine. It almost feels like it was a dream. Today it is a dream anyway.

Daydreaming is a kind of mind travel that isn't taken lightly in my book. A daydream can make my entire day. In this case, daydreaming about Sandblast 2013 is getting me through work on this Monday. It's allowing me to forget how sore I am, how burnt I am, and reminding me that life is so much more than this desk and computer in front of me. This daydream is motivation to keep going and reminds me that times to travel and explore will always come along to pick you up out of your seat and back into the world of excitement, glamor, and glory.

Coconutty

Nostalgia - A Place

Everyone knows the feeling. A place you've been every summer. I place that brings back the best memories and thoughts and emotions. A place where you feel loved, wanted, and feel free to love to the fullest. For me that place is the beaches of the town of Charlevoix in Northern Michigan.

The best part about this place is that it is family oriented and comes with a tad of history. My mother's dad was a Volks Wagon dealership owner, the first in Michigan actually, so you could imagine his success. He bought a lake-house right on Round Lake, a boat, and a limo to get his 6 kids 3 hours north up to the lake-house, which inevitably turned into "The Cottage". The limo had nothing to do with the money, and everything to do with a clever way to get all his children from one place to the other with as little complaining and trouble as possible. Seems like a pretty cool idea - good thinkin gramps, right up my alley.

Now these are all stories and tails that are heckled over during holidays when my aunts and uncles gather, so I don't actually know if the limo really was a good idea. But all I know is my whole life, and still now, it sounds like a majestic life they had growing up. These stories add to the love and the emotion that is involved when I visit The Cottage. As a kid, it was just a place for me to have fun. Now it's a place where I find peace, serenity, and love.

You don't take any boyfriend to the places that causes nostalgia, you take "the one" to it. Once you enter into the amazing world that is your nostalgic place, the gates of your heart open up for everyone to see who you really are, and how you came to be. It is the ultimate vulnerability. And I am so grateful to be able to have the opportunity to be at my place once again.

Physical Activity Increases Productiviity

When I think of the world "travel", my eyes glaze over and I think about palm trees, meadows, flowers, exotic animals, and beautiful colors. Getting lost in the meaning of the word is a hobby of mine and is truly always an exciting adventure. Lately, I have been using the time I would spend day-dreaming about distance travels and channeling it into something much more useful.

I have found that using my energy and excitement I have for travel and applying it within my work office has brought me great motivation and satisfaction. Today I just finished the rough draft of my PowerPoint presentation called "Physical Activity is Productivity". Just as movement and traveling outside of the office can bring great understanding of ones self and amazing self-achievement, we must bring this excitement into the work place to keep us motivated and excited to do our job.

Traveling's incentives are endless.

• Self-acheivement
• cultural awareness
• Make new friends
• Satisfaction
• Fulfillment of desire
• The list goes on

Take the stairs

So why don't we allow these incentives in the work place? WE MUST. But in order to convince management that physical activity in the workplace is worth everyone's, time, money, and effort, we must bring to the surface what physical activity can do for a company. It has been proved in many studies (just Google it) that physical activity increases productivity in the work place.

Here is a general overview of the rough draft of my presentation:

1. Being at your desk does not mean work is getting done
2. A demand for productivity causes employees to do less of what they love
3. Taking breaks increases productivity
4. Being physically active can protect against job burnout
5. Physical activity programs increase productivity by 2 to 52%
6. Establish Physical Activity Program
7. Provide tools (standing desks)
8. Track progress (point system)
9. Incentives (coupons)
10. Ongoing advice
11. Establish a Wellness Policy for employee handbook
12. Works Cited

This presentation is the first step to a big change in our office. Out of my way corporate! Let's get healthy!

Practice Selflessness While Traveling

Yesterday when I was at the gym during my lunch break, I was prepping in the locker room after a pretty intense leg day. There are always two to three women who are in the locker room about the same time as me prepping after their workout as well. I pretty much keep to myself because they seem to be pretty good friends. I have heard them talk about everything from their dog to their kids to their friends kids. Although they pretend I'm not there, the locker room is so small I become part of their audience.

One of the ladies who was currently on the topic of her own kids was describing her busy weekends with her two daughters. One weekend was a baby shower for her aunt and one was a birthday party for her 70 year old hippy uncle. This seemed like a pretty normal weekend for me, considering that my boyfriend has 700 family members that live in Indiana. But the way she spoke of it, it didn't seem like a normal thing to be doing on their weekends as a family. The baby shower was a four hour drive, and the birthday party was five. This sent the woman wailing about how her kids wouldn't stop complaining.

Her daughters didn't want to travel because they knew that there wasn't anything in it for them. The baby shower and the birthday party would go on without them whether they were there or not. Mother's reasoning was "Girls, we will be traveling to this baby shower not for us, but for your aunt."

Duh!

No matter how rechid a four hour car ride sounded to be someone for only two hours, this wasn't about them, this was about a newborn baby and it's mother. All selfish thoughts had to be pushed aside to make the trip for a celebration that was for somebody else.

At the party the aunt had cried out of gratefulness to see the effort from her sister and her two daughters. Gratefulness, happiness, and excitement was brought into their aunts life by their sacrifice to travel to her baby shower.

Traveling brings great joy to each of us individually, and can bring much satisfaction to our lives. We have to remember not to take traveling as a selfish act, and consider what's on the other side. We all may benefit from traveling, but think of who could also benefit. Don't let the lack of self-gratification hold you back. Move forward into a world of giving while you travel, and learn more about the sanctity and true nature of what it means to travel.

My friends making the trip and filling my life with joy

Cheers!

Unstuck Not Like Glue

Ironically enough, my desk job in cubicle land has unstuck me from my stagnant world. I had the notion that if I always moved around, changed friends, changed houses, changes cities, that it would provide me with more opportunities and adventures than a desk job could. I had it all wrong.

It's frame of mind, not frame of scenery, that's going to provide you with adventure and opportunity.

Although parts of my life haven't changed, like hopping from apartment to apartment, a major part of me has changed significantly since I started my full-time job as an account executive in Indianapolis. It has enlightened me that staying in one spot, at my desk, doing my job, will provide me what I need in order to explore the way I want to explore.

Because of my steady income, I can travel every weekend if I want. As a club frisbee player, as soon as it gets above 45 degrees we start traveling across the nation for frisbee tournaments. We were offered a bid to a tournament in Seattle, WA which I had the funds for! I was ready to pack my bags and book a flight! Unfortunately, my other teammates aren't in the same place as me with my "adventurous stuck" living. I am planning to go to California next summer for Lei-out, one of the biggest beach tournaments in the nation. I am planning to go to Sarasota for nationals this summer. I am capable of all of this traveling and exploring because of my cube.

Stuck = adventure.

In saying this, I have found love for a job I never thought I would. I work in insurance. Boring as hell. BUT because it is so boring, my imagination and creativity run wild. Changing up sales tactics and trying new sales schemes keeps me on my toes every day. Bringing fresh brains to the table will always rev up an appetite.

Stay stuck ya'll. (only if you love what you do)

Thrilling or Teriffying Childhood Experience... GO!

Homage to a memory.

I felt much bigger than my age when I was 12. I was skiing at Aspen when I was 12. Not taking lessons, I was tackling mountains when I was 12. I was cutting powder, slicing ice, chopping crystal, and moving moguls when I was 12. I could do anything.

High on adrenaline, "To the top!" I demanded.

My keen skiing family couldn't disagree. Two by two, we boarded the chairlift. We moved higher, as the weather got colder. We got colder, as the chairlift took us slowly to the top.

5 minutes, mom and I ran out of conversation.

15 minutes, we were speechless not because of lack of words, but because our mouths were full of chattering teeth.

25 minutes. The wind gusted, the snow blinded, and the cold pierced.

I was so scared.

Shocked by the snowbank at our feet my mom ripped me from the chair. We tumbled down the exit as we lost our hats and poles. Struggling to find our gear in the blinding, horrific blasts of air impaling us in the face, we screamed for each other. 

Tip: Where a helmet on the mountain. 

I'm a writer.

I listened to Poor Boy by Blink Pilot while writing this blog, and it made it feel so much more epic than it probably is. You should probably YouTube it and let it play on repeat while you read so you get the same effect.

It's freakin fall. I've spent my entire summer writing. Obviously not for myself, hents no blog since July, but for OTHER people. My experience writing for a personal blog placed me in a position I want to be without even "trying". Writing about traveling and experiencing the world was a hobby of mine, and still is. I'm doing what I love now, just because I had a blog to begin with. I didn't go to school for writing. I graduated with a BA in advertising. The most I wrote for my degree was about 3-4 sentences of "copy" for an ad. Witty copy. Well I tried.

Man so many things have happened. I got hit by a car. My ultimate team made it to regionals. I can't afford shit, even though I'm living like I can. I'm moving for the 2nd time. I've been SUPER drunk like.... 5 times all summer. That's it. And probably most times with my mom when I visit home. My internship was extended for a year. I love the city. I got a new racing bike (WHATUP MONON TRAIL!!). My presence on the internet has grown significantly. I have a brilliant supervisor who I know is going to point me in the right direction. Things are looking up. Things have been looking up for about four months now.

I hope to merge all of my writings into one place, my Travel Blog Facebook page. I acutally invested $1/day for advertising for it, so you may even see it swipe across your screen if you are the lucky 6 people in the nation who get to see it before they take it down because of my cheap investment. But I hope you get to see it pop up on your search in the future organically. It will grow. Keep an eye out for it.

For the peeps:

EXTREME!

Looking for ideas to try something new, challenge yourself, travel the world?  Get some great ideas at the HCCMIS Blog.

How extreme are you? Probably not enough. It's never enough.

I travel not to go anywhere...

Wow, blew my 3000 page view goal out of the water with that last post.

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

I am moving to Indy on Wednesday, start work on Thursday. Time seems to be my only challenge. But it isn't a challenge unless I make it one. Smooth transitions, let's go.

Get hired, and travel

Today I am at 2994 page views, and I hope this post allows me to hit 3000. What an accomplishment. I am taking this time to also inform the world of my official job offer at HCC Medical Insurance Services. My mom is driving down tonight, and we are off to Indy early tomorrow morning to meet up with a leasing agent at 1:00 pm to discuss apartments. I am SO excited to be starting my life in a city with bike lanes and markets and activities! There is so much to Indy that needs to be discovered.

Travel to New Beginnings

Jack had me do a two minute speech on anything I wanted. Since he is a speech coach, he is going to critique my mistakes, and then I record myself again and show you the changes and improvements. Of course It had to do with my current life situations. Enjoy!

Commuting for ultimate frisbee...

I am trying out for a team based out of Ann Arbor called Overhaul.  They practice at fields that are about and hour and fifteen minutes from where I live in East Lansing. Who thought that I'd be commuting for frisbee before I commuted for a job?

I've been applying and keeping in touch with Ignite Social Media. I actually heard about this place through guy that played on the Men's frisbee team at MSU, Mike Chase. He has been very helpful in trying to get me connected with the company. I am keeping my fingers crossed, because it sounds like an amazing opportunity.

Save money at gas pumps

My team traveled a lot in order to play in tournaments, and I will still have to travel a lot when I join Overhaul for the summer. It costs a lot of money! We always drive our cars, and I found an article that gives tips on ways to save money when filling up your gas tank. For example, for optimal savings, wait until you have about a quarter tank left, and then when you fill up, fill all of the way to the top. Over time, that will save you money. Check it out! Air in your tires and even the way you drive effect your gas mileage.  These are all things we should consider as avid travelers.

Work in Boulder, CO

Boulder, CO. Mountains, biking, running, outdoor trails, skiing, sun, happiness. Those are the first words that come to mind when I think about that place. USA Ultimate Headquarters is located here, and I am 120% determined to work in their marketing department. Only thing is, I need to figure out how to get them to notice me. Here is a blog that has tips to get a job across the country. It is possible, but it is hard. But I'm gonna do it. And I'm gonna ski ALL THE TIME!

Travel is Fatal

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.” – Mark Twain

Travel: Chicago Invite

It's been three days since the Moose and I were in Chicago, doing what we could to take home another championship.  To be honest, it was a huge slap in the face coming to Chi-Invite off of our spring break champ high.  We were totally on a championship high. We were high off our shiny little broken plastic trophy (yes, we broke it the night we got it).  Although we were in the power-pool playing the most competitive teams at the tournament, we didn't get last.  This to us gives us a tiny, but very clear and inspirational, glimpse of hope.  We've been gunning for nationals, and are working very hard these next two weeks to get our act together for sectionals.