As 24 approached, I was able to spend time reflecting on the past year and my life to date. I mostly had this time because on the actual day of my birthday, a tropical storm made its way into Georgia, which caused me to spend the entire indoors avoiding fallen trees. Strangely enough, this day to myself was one of my favorite birthdays to date.

It is not often that I get to spend a lot of time alone. I have a roommate, and work usually keeps me busy. Before work, it was graduate school that took up my days and nights. I sat on this birthday just feeling truly thankful and thanking God for my existence and time to date. I reflected on the person that I was becoming and where I wanted to go. As I reflected, I thought about my most recent accomplishment of starting my first full time job after grad school.

As I started my first year of full-time work, I found myself with more free time on my hands than before now that I was done with school. Initially, I found myself trying to bring work home then quickly recognized that I was only doing so because I was always used to having homework from school assignments or some other assignment to allocate my time.

The revelation of this newfound time for myself was exciting and a little unsettling honestly. I found myself wondering how I would spend all of this time. I realized that I was at a point of rediscovery of myself. I spent so much time knowing myself as a student. Now I had to learn about myself in a new context. I had the time to just be and to decide what I wanted just being to look like for myself. I reflected on what I cared about and realized that I wanted to see more of the world. While taking long-term trips was not possible with my job and other engagements, weekend trips were much more my speed. Being from Georgia and currently living in the state, I realized that I had not done that much exploring of the place that I called home outside of the metroAtlanta and Athens areas.

For 24, I decided to focus my birthday challenge on spending more time in nature and learning more about the state of Georgia. To do so, I decided that I would visit Georgia’s 7 Natural Wonders throughout the year. On the list, there is: Amicalola Falls, Tallulah Gorge, Providence Canyon, Warm Springs, Radium Springs, Okefenokee Swamp, and Stone Mountain (in my hometown!).

Outside of Stone Mountain and Amicalola Falls, I had never ventured to any of these places or even thought to do so. However, the pathway to adventure starts with the first step. Be sure to check out the rest of my posts to see how my adventures go!

What are you working on solely for your growth and enjoyment?

If you do not know, what is stopping you from figuring it out?

P.S. In case you were curious, you can read more about Georgia’s 7 Natural Wonders here: https://georgia.gov/blog/2013-11-15/georgias-7-natural-wonders

Also, if you’re interested in an outdoor adventure, each state has a network of state parks (https://www.stateparks.org/) that you can start exploring, or you can head to the closest local park for a day of games outside.