There are very few things I love. I love my wife, my friends, my family, my cat. Those are all living things. Aren’t I supposed to love an inanimate object or activity that gives me a reason to live and make money from? I can’t really make money from loving my family (I’m pretty sure at least…). If you know me, you know that I’m a drummer. But the truth is, I don’t love drumming. It’s a very tragic truth for myself and others to learn, because I certainly don’t want to waste my talents. That’s the reason I keep doing it. I’m hoping one day I fall in love with it and I can just make drum videos or make homemade drums to sell at a flea market in Mexico. You might also think I love writing because I started a blog. However, that is also false. Maybe that’s something I’ll learn to love as well. I hated it in school because I was bad at writing fiction (still am), but I’m definitely good at writing emails and nonfiction. If I had to choose one thing to love other than people or my cat, it would be traveling. My wife and I were just talking about this last night. Coming from a home and community that never wanted to leave the state, I found it so fascinating that you could get 400 people inside a hollow shell of steel, elevate them up to 40,000 feet above sea level and accelerate them to 500 miles per hour. It wasn’t that long ago people took days out of their lives to straight up walk to the nearest town for some medicine. Now you can get to the other side of the world in 20 hours or less while watching movies with a cocktail in your hand. That blew me away as a kid going to Hawaii. However as life went on, I slowly stopped fixating on such fascinations and started worrying much more about how I was going to live after high school. What job will I have? Which college will I attend? Can I even afford college? Is college a good choice for me? What should I major in? How can I sell drugs and get away with it? How do I find sugar mamas? Which sugar mama is going to fly me to their mansion and take care of me for the rest of my life? What does a fulfilling career look like for me? You know, important questions everybody asks themselves at some point in their life. I also started confusing survival tactics with things I genuinely enjoyed, like budgeting and meal prepping. I like the idea of both, but I hate how time consuming they are. After I started at university, I quickly realized I only did it to be with my friends and see if I had any other interests. I guess those are good enough reasons to go $60,000 in student loan debt? Flash forward to sophomore year, Katie had a senior trip planned (she’s two years older than me). She decided she was going to Japan. I was so jealous that I decided to stop complaining and just go with her. Shout out to Joda who accompanied me on the 13 hour plane ride to meet up with Katie a week into her trip. You can read about my entire experience in Tokyo here! It was magical. Long story short, I came back from Tokyo a completely different person. I knew the world was different in Asia compared to the U.S., but to experience it for yourself is mind-blowing. The language barrier, currency, strange smells, delicious noodles and seafood, kawaii (cute) culture, and everything else. It’s a lot for someone to take in, and it didn’t fully hit me ‘til we were back in the states for a few days. But when it did… that’s all I cared about. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I wanted to go back. I wanted to live there. I wanted to see other parts of Japan. I wanted to watch anime and learn Japanese. I wanted to explore the rest of the world. I still desperately want to do those things, and I won’t stop until I do. Seeing the world, at least right now in my life, is pretty much the only “thing” I love. Also eating and drinking, but who doesn’t love that?
Oh yeah by the way, my name is Bryce 😂 I live in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, and I’m going to commit to writing twice per week on here about things I love (which is not a lot as you know), so it should stay pretty concise. If you want to talk, criticize or collaborate, you can email me at [email protected] or text me at 541-840-3225.