Today is March 30, 2012. Even though we’ve got one more day left in March, it means that 2012 is 1/4 over…ALREADY. While that freaks me out, I think there’s another way of thinking about it: You’ve still got 9 months to achieve whatever goals you may have set for yourself this year both big and small.

I’ve been obsessed with time this year. I think about how well I’m using it or how I may be wasting it. Perhaps it’s that I’m getting older or moving closer to making larger life changes. Maybe I’ve just finally come to the deep realization that time is one of the biggest commodities I have in my possession right now. At this very moment, I have the time to make things happen for myself and for others.

Anyway, I thought I would share some words of encouragement and reveal some of the things I’ve been thinking about in the first 3 months of 2012 in Pinterest quotation form.

Lots of running

(I’m still learning this one)

I created a Vision Board for 2012 with these quotations and more on Pinterest. Feel free to follow me there by clicking this link.

I know I’m getting a little Deepak Chopra/Yoda-like on you today, but the travel posts are coming.

I hope the next 3/4 of the year will allow you to learn more about yourself, accomplish goals and have experiences that you never imagined you would.

I know that I’ve been pretty quiet here this week, but that’s because I’ve been busy working (well, who doesn’t get busy doing that?) as well as planning what is going to be a RIDUNKULOUS spring and early summer for me. I’m trying to finish out March as organized as possible, which means more work now and less blogging. More details about some of my plans next week!

Things I’ve been thinking about this week:

1. I was filling out a visa application, and I had to put my country of birth. I look at the drop down menu, and I see “Antigua & Barbados.” Huh? I’m not from Barbados. I have friends from the lovely island and even dated a few guys from there, but I’ve never set foot on Barbados. Antigua and Barbados are, um, like, two separate countries.

Antigua

See where Barbados is? Not really close…

I think the best way to tackle this discussion is to talk about how I financed my travels before Husband J. Honestly, with two incomes to pull from and another person’s considerations and tastes to contend with, it has changed the way I travel. Also, with both of our salaries, it is/was easier to stay at nicer places and do certain types of activities that I probably wouldn’t do myself. Husband J and even me, at certain points, have done well for ourselves financially through our jobs. I’m not going to lie to you about that. That being said, during my early travels, I had to learn how to work the little I did have and that taught me a lot about my priorities and how I wanted to handle parts of my finances.

Before I talk about financial strategies both practical and mental that I used to figure out how to find the money to travel, I thought I would let you know that it wasn’t always easy. I have had circumstances that didn’t make it easy to fund traveling anywhere but to the grocery store and to my job much less to the places I’ve been.

Let me give you a picture of what my financial life was like in the past:

1. I had/have student loans. I still have outstanding student loans. I went to what many people consider a very good (well, I liked it) private university for my undergraduate degree as well as law school afterwards. Law school should actually be called “Loan school” because that’s how most people finance their legal education. In the U.S. if we choose certain educational paths, we have to pay for it somehow, plain and simple.

2. I don’t come from a family that is well off or even close. My mother is the bomb, and I don’t know how she raised me by herself. She came to the U.S.A. without any immediate family and was the sole breadwinner of my small family unit. (Love you, Mom!!!) I tell people that I’m a poor girl that has lived a rich girl’s life (without the nice clothes). It’s true. Neither my mother nor has my family ever funded any of the trips I’ve taken. My travels have been because I found a way to do it on my own somehow.

3. I have had credit card debt (in the past). Lots of it. When you spend three years of your twenties trying to live on nothing, it’s hard not to rack it up (See #1). I have no qualms saying that I used to have credit card debt, especially now that it’s been paid off for years. At the same time, I didn’t let it stop me from doing what I wanted to do.

I’m not writing all of these things for travel street cred, but to let you know that even not so great finances or lack of an inheritance should keep you from travelling. I also tell you these things because I hate reading travel blogs that don’t mention any of these issues.

In the next post in this series, I’ll let you know some of the strategies, opportunities and mental outlooks that I used to find a way to see the world. It’s not necessarily rocket science, but I hope it shatters the idea that travel is only for some people. It’s for you, too.

Stay tuned…

Maybe it’s a Caribbean mother thing, but my mother never allowed guests to see her home looking a shambles. I have inherited that, so it is even shocking to me that I am revealing what my closet and bedroom looked like when I did some spring cleaning and clothing purge last year.

I just want to say that I feel as if I’ve grown as a person by showing this picture.

While I was aggressively performing my twice per year clothing purge, I finally decided to let go of some items of clothing that I’d been holding on to. Many of them reminded me of travels that I’ve taken or were bought while I was away.

Although the pic doesn’t really show it, this is a black corduroy blazer that I picked up in South Africa. I arrived in Cape Town in late August, which is the end of winter/beginning of spring there. It was cold. Yes, South Africa is on the African continent, but it can get VERY cold. I was wearing a coat for my first month there. I bought this at a cute boutique a few blocks away from my internship’s office. I think the women who owned the store loved me because I would drop money when I went (more like the equivalent of $20 or $30 USD, but at the time that was a lot of rand). It was nice being a student with access to US dollars when the rand (South African currency) was trading at $10USD to $1R. For a variety of reasons, I did a lot of retail therapy when I was in South Africa (breaking up with someone half way around the world deserves a shopping trip or three).

Status: At the Salvation Army. Hopefully someone bought it.

Until recently, these Merrell walking shoes were the only real outdoorsy gear I owned. I now forget when I actually bought them. Husband J grew up being very outdoorsy, so he gets a little excited when I buy outdoorsy things and resemble an L.L. Bean catalog model. I used these quite a bit during our trip to Turkey. These will get a lot of use this year.

Status: At the bottom of the closet, rearing to go.

Status: Salvation Army or on someone else’s feet

I got this green pullover the first and only time I’ve been to Martha’s Vineyard. Menemsha is a smaller fishing village on the island that doesn’t get as many visitors as Oak Bluffs, Edgartown or the other more touristy summer towns. Husband J and I drove out there and enjoyed how quiet it was compared to the rest of the island.

Status: Still in the closet. I like this shade of green

By the end of the afternoon, my closet looked normal again.

I’ve always had my own closet since living with Husband J. I am convinced it is the key to a happy marriage.