It’s All Just Trials and Tribulations of Life
A photojourney through the last few months of my life on and off the road
There’s a million cliches about fear. To confront, to overcome, to challenge; it’s difficult to decipher where fear is tangibly taken for account in reality.
Somewhat recently, I wrote a piece called Take the Leap, about a trip I took to Yuba with a few friends to go cliff jumping. While the article did worlds for me to process the emotional impact of the adventure, I returned home with more unanswered questions than what I came with.
I had taken a trip to Havasupai and the Grand Canyon last spring, a 4,000 mile journey over the course of 3 days and 2 nights — which wiped my mind and soul clean of all of my expectations. The beauty of desolate deserts in Arizona and the Mojave was an intense reminder that California is truly my home — and while I loved every second and every mile of my travel, I wondered if I could really see myself in perpetual movement like before. Havasupai was by far the furthest I had ever been from civilization in my life, highlighted by its breathtaking geography and water features, however calloused by its 25 mile out-and-back journey (which we did in a single day).
I later watched the stars rise and turn in Joshua Tree, and drove to Yosemite on a whim with my girlfriend where we stayed for a week. Just a few weeks later, I was in the central Sierras to see Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, then back up north to the Stanislaus National Forest, then south to Big Sur and Encinitas, was home for a weekend then I was back up north in Yuba. I returned home to San Jose for only an hour or two before I was back on the road, but this time south, to my home in Oxnard, and then to San Diego.
Exhausting.
Even now, I’m constantly bouncing between Los Angeles, Santa Barbara and San Diego, I’m telling you, it never ends. And yes, the gas bill is astronomical.
But when I found myself alone at home in San Jose with a pen and paper, I couldn’t ink a word of excitement. It was then I had realized I fought hard enough to make a home out of the road; I no longer found myself afraid of the life of a nomad, and the uncomfortability of being a man with no plan. Something just clicked.
I recently climbed a building in Los Angeles (I’m working on a narrative at the moment), which in turn had created one of the wildest adventures of my life. Running from guards and helicopters at incredible heights, while snaking through dark, silent corridors where few men had ever been was beyond exhilarating — terrifying, most of all.
But as much as I dreaded the interminable staircase to the rooftop and eventually further, I was enchanted by the vibrant city lights, the stillness of the air high above America’s busiest city. It’s remarkably calm dangling from 80 stories up.
The stoke and the adventure, everything is just a chapter among a story that will all help us grow to gain to perspective and understanding within the world around us. I write my story a little different, and while I stumble like a newborn foal through each new chapter, I always take something small along with me.
Like I always say, it’s all just trials and tribulations of life. So challenge yourself, take your little leaps, and commit. Honestly, what do you have to lose?
“I never lose. I either win or learn.” — Nelson Mandela
