My Travel Quests

I have so much on my bucket list, there's not way I'll be able to complete it all before I die (even if I'm just 20 right now). Among the basketball players I want to see before they retire, the countries I want to visit, the thrills I want to seek and the sights I want to see, nothing matches me national park goal.

Eventually, I'd like to visit all 60 U.S. national parks (it's going to be real difficult if they keep adding more of them). So far I've marked off Grand Canyon, Big Bend, Petrified Forest, Great Smoky Mountains and Rocky Mountain National Parks. I have a way to go still.

The joy in visiting parks is immense. Public land set aside for pure enjoyment, without being marred by manmade monstrosities, serve a crucial role in our mental health. Once, the entire continent spanned coast to coast as untouched wilderness; now, only these parks remain the last refuge of wild, free from industry and economic interests.

I feel like I owe it to Teddy Roosevelt to visit these parks. He did so much incredible work in establishing the scope of the National Park Service that it just feels like doing right by him. But once I finish with American national parks (it'll take me a bit), I won't stop there.

Thanks to Stan Rogers, for just one time, I would take the Northwest Passage. Canada represents something akin to what the North American continent once was: vast frontier — mysterious, harsh and altogether wild. To venture north of the Arctic Circle and sleep under midnight sun sounds like a fantasy novel, but people do it every year. What's stopping me from making the long trip northward? I mean, I have a passport and a healthy dose of wanderlust. What more do I need?

Of course, I would not journey alone... which makes the trip all the more difficult to pursue. My girlfriend hates the cold, plus she doesn't have the same ill-advised spontaneity that I possess. That's definitely a good thing.

As for now, my bucket list is on pause. Some day I will journey northward, like my forefathers once explored, but for now I'll continue to go to class, sleep in a dorm room, drink lots of coffee and pull all-nighters to finish major projects.