When You Need to Figure Out Your Life, Hit the Sticks

If you've ever heard the song "The Sticks" by MotherMother, you will know that it's bizarre, gritty and makes you want to run away from the usual 9-5 life (as most of their music does).

This is my mindset at the moment. I am currently a handful of emails, one university course and some desperate loans away from moving across the world to Austria and fulfilling my dreams as a musician. The idea of it makes a tunnel light up in my world. Although everything is upside down, backwards and sideways. Although life has a surprisingly cruel way of kicking its lessons into you when you're down. Music has always been my lantern in the dark, the thing that never blinks out or fades from my view, and I am so freaking close to making it. To get my Bachelors and live a music-filled life that makes the world smile a little more and lets me pay my bills.

For those interested in how I'm going to go about it, my main plan of attack is this:

1. I can't get a student visa while attending a language school to learn German. I can only apply for a visa D, which won't let me find employment.
2. So I'll enroll in one or two English-speaking music courses, which will let me get that student visa while I take intensive German courses.
3. Once my German skills are up to par, I can apply full time in university and then we're really kicking it up a gear!

So it is in this situation that I find myself writing in a book (later to be typed out) in a campsite half an hour outside of Squamish, B.C. I never thought I was big on camping until I discovered my hefty Pathfinder could stash a foamie bed and three days worth of food/supplies. At the end of my work week in the summer between semesters, I would escape the humming crowds of people and explore the endless trails, lakes and mountains this wonderful part of the world harbors.

People were shocked to hear I camped on my own, though I never understood why. I lived on my own, I carried heavy bags of groceries up flights of stairs, made small house repairs and bandaged household injuries by myself; it was no different to me. Determined to save money where I could, I did things the old-fashioned (sketchy) way and parked my car on an abandoned logging road not far from the local cemetery.

This time, however, Mothership was too nervous about the dangers that could befall a 22-year-old chick and booked me a campsite. I've never been to a drive-in campsite by myself before and I'd be lying to say I wasn't excited to have a real fire pit (As a responsible camper, in fire season I only used my individual fuel cubes, which were enough for a cup of instant coffee and ramen but always left my little metal grate smelling kind of fishy... @__@)!

Way out here, I feel a million worlds away from the one I was in earlier today. My mind has whirred down and I can think about my plans without the rush of "Let's do it already!!" that plagues my waking life. Tomorrow I will study some German and try my hand at the busking scene in town (I'm a little out of practice but my guitar is fighting ready). Soon, or very soon, my life will change in weird and wonderful ways. I hope I can take you on this adventure with me, it's going to be a wild one and there's going to be some fantastic music made along the way.

Cheers,

Streetlamp.