experience the impact!

Well, I'm about 1,000 miles away from here now, but these pictures are from the Meteor Crater in Arizona! Ever since I was a kid I've wanted to come see this, and I finally got to! It's the most well preserved meteor crater on Earth, though certainly not the biggest. There are about 150 other known meteor craters on Earth, and this one is comparatively pretty small. Apparently, though, it's big enough to have 20 football games going on simultaneously on 20 football fields on the bottom, while over 2 million spectators watch from the sides of the crater. Amazing, right?!

The picture below I found on the internet to show you the entire crater, since it's difficult to take a picture of the whole thing from standing on the edge. You don't really get the full "impact," if you will.

source

I went on a little hour long "hike" about a half mile around the crater's edge. We had this guide who told us a bunch of stuff about the crater--the geology, history, fun facts, etc. The crater is actually privately owned so it's not part of the national park system (go figure, in America you can own an enormous meteor crater! Haha).

It's really convenient to get to, only about 6 miles south of I-40, so if you're ever out driving in the area and have never checked it out, go have a look! It costs around $15 bucks, but you get to watch a little movie, go through a cool informational area, and you can go for the guided tour of the rim of the crater.

I camped at the Meteor Crater RV park, which was a really nice park. You get a discount to the Crater visitors center if you stay at the park (or, if you visit the crater first, you get 20% off of your RV site... I was aware of neither of these deals and so I paid full price for both, whoops!).

Something about all the talk of meteorites made me want to bake cookies... I'd never used the Brave's oven, so it was the first time I'd ever baked anything! Great success! You can probably guess what I ate for the next two days...

I made this little video a while ago and never got around to posting it. Just a tiny peek into my daily routine! Drive, drive, drive!

Before I sign off on this post, I wanted to tell you guys to go read this post by Jeremy Larson, and then Elsie's follow-up/response post. Both posts by people I definitely admire, and on a subject I myself have been thinking a lot about recently. Living your dream or having a "dream job," while often glamorized, is more hard work, long hours, and steadfast commitment, than dancing around and lolly-gagging with glee. I have always held in high regard people like Elsie and Jeremy, who are doing what they love-- even though it's difficult and often not well paying.
Back in school I went through a period of time where I was trying to decide where I wanted to go with my life. I was an art major, but I loved science and my Dad (a doctor) knew this and knew that I could easily go on to med school and become a doctor. I was pre-med for a year of college, on top of my art classes (since I never dropped my art major, just planned on double majoring art & pre-med), but at the end of the year I had come to the realization that medicine was not where I wanted to go with my life. While I kind of felt bad knowing that I could go on to a career of healing and fixing people, I also knew that I wasn't called to be a doctor and that there were other things out there that I was meant for. I still haven't completely figured out what those things are, but I'm definitely moving in that direction. Life as a doctor also promised a very healthy income. My Dad always made the point that, while I would put in a lot of years of school and work initially, the income would soon allow me to do the things I love doing, like art, travel, etc. This was a good argument, but I couldn't see myself giving up most of my life toiling away in school when I knew there was so much that I wanted to be doing. I'm also the kind of person who has a hard time multitasking, so I knew that if I went into medicine, I'd probably just let my art fall to the wayside.
I guess that was a long, roundabout way of saying that, while I'll probably never make a six figure income, I'd rather make my living doing something I love and am passionate about. I feel so grateful that I've come to this realization at 23 instead of 30 or after already having spent years working towards something I don't want to be doing. I admire Elsie immensely for starting her own business and being so passionate about her art and work. In the past few years I've thought a lot about starting my own business and so as I look to the end of my travels and into life beyond the Brave, it's inspiring to know that, while it's hard work, there are people out there "living the dream".