July 31, 2011, I boarded an Amtrak train at South Station in Boston headed home and thought to myself this wonderful weekend trip to Rockport, MA with some of my closest college friends would be the highlight of my summer. Besides a planned family vacation to Maine in August, I was home in NJ for the summer and commuting to work in NYC. But then August happened and everything changed.
Shopping at Life is Good in Portland, ME I came across this book of inspirational quotes and one of them was "Everything we do is a once in a lifetime experience." This simple idea stuck with me and made me realize that it's 100% true. EVERYTHING we do - every shopping trip, day at the office, night out with friends is different in some way. No two days are ever EXACTLY the same and we should take advantage of every opportunity that comes our way. That's how I interpreted it anyway. Then I thought, why not blog about everything I do that's a once in a lifetime experience (which I guess is everything, right?), if only to provide a list for myself to look back on. So here it goes. I am going to try blogging once again (I've had a few failed attempts in the past - I start out posting a lot but can never seem to keep up with it) but this time I'm going to write about things I do that are "once in a lifetime" even if it's just food shopping at Whole Foods. I will try to make it interesting though for anyone who actually stumbles upon this blog! My goal is really for myself - to see everything that I do and hopefully motivate me to have more "once in a lifetime" experiences. Live life to the fullest and all that. I'm not going to set a time frame for posts but will just post as things happen...starting below with my crazy adventures this month.
August 2011 - Business trips, vacations and mother nature
Since June I had been helping with a business development project at work (I'm in corporate communications at Ogilvy PR) and as the first week in August rolled around, I was becoming more and more involved, helping the team from NY as they traveled back and forth to Mexico to meet with the client. As the most junior person on the project (and my lack of Spanish), I did not expect to go with them to Mexico City and hadn't been asked for the past 2 months. However, two people were going on vacation and suddenly I found myself asked to go to Mexico to help out TWICE over the next two weeks. Not only would this be my first business trip but it was also my first time in Mexico!! I couldn't believe it - after accepting the fact that 2011 would be the first year I wouldn't get to use my passport since 2008, I was actually going to travel internationally and with only 4 days notice!
Mexico City was incredible. My Spanish slowly came back to me (5 years of classes and I'd practically forgotten all of it) and it was the perfect "once in a lifetime" experience. My first business trip, I got to work in our Mexico City office and met truly remarkable people. The office has so much Ogilvy pride and I felt at home there. We worked hard and I didn't get to do any sightseeing but it didn't matter (I didn't even know what there was to do there anyway!) but I was able to strengthen relationships with my co-workers from the US and build relationships with my co-workers from Mexico. We had outstanding accommodations and delicious meals which made this almost a vacation (if it weren't for working 10-12 hour days!) and I was so happy to be there. The first trip was 4 days 3 nights and the second trip was 5 days 4 nights with only 4 days in between! I know how lucky I was to not only to work on this project at this stage in my career but to have the support and trust of my colleagues was a great feeling. They brought me to Mexico and I don't think they'll ever know how much this trip and project meant to me. I can only hope for more "once in a lifetime" opportunities like this in the future.
But the adventures don't stop there! Upon returning to NJ after my second trip to Mexico, I had only a few hours to unpack and repack for my vacation to Maine! Even though I'm from the east coast and went to college in Boston (BU all the way!), my family and I have NEVER been to Maine. It's the only state in the northeast we had yet to visit so we decided to spend a week there. For the most part, I wanted to strangle my brother and my parents drove me crazy but I did have a great time breathing in the fresh air of this "once in a lifetime" vacation. We spent the first few days (Saturday, Aug.20-Monday, Aug.22) in Portland where we visited the waterfront, shopped and toured the Victorian Mansion. My favorite part though was the food! As an organic and local food lover I was in heaven (not to mention a blueberry lover!). As a vegetarian I missed out on sampling the local grass-fed and natural beef (but I'm not complaining - I LOVE being a vegetarian) but I enjoyed all the wonderful seafood, veggies, fruit and dairy! I tried lobster for the first time and ate more goat cheese than I probably should have (it was seriously in every dish!) but I let my tastebuds run wild. I think my favorite dish was a lobster, goat cheese and blueberry salad! So yummy! There's also only ONE Whole Foods in all of Maine and so of course we went! It was my favorite by far. Compared to the ones in NJ, the Maine Whole Foods had much more organic and local produce in addition to a greater variety of other foods throughout the store. I could have spent an entire day just walking up and down the aisles taking it all in. We also visited Freeport and saw the desert of Maine (yes, there really is a desert - it was a freak of nature!) and the LL Bean factory store (bought myself a winter jacket and fleece!).
Tuesday, Aug.23 we drove up to Bar Harbor. We arrived at 2:30pm and quickly learned that an earthquake occurred in Virgina but was felt in NJ and NY. We didn't feel it in Maine but I still count this as a "once in a lifetime" experience. After all, it's the first earthquake to happen on the east coast during my lifetime (and hopefully the last). We had a wonderful few days in Bar Harbor and ate more delicious food (I had the most scrumptious wild blueberry pie!!!) and visited Acadia National Park, which was a true natural beauty. On Thursday we drove up to Campobello Island, Canada and saw President Roosevelt (FDR)'s summer home. If you think about it, I was actually in all 3 North American countries in ONE WEEK - Mexico, US and Canada. I'd say this qualifies as a "once in a lifetime" experience as well, no?
While in Bar Harbor, we also learned of Hurricane Irene. Tearing apart the Caribbean, it was forecasted to hit the east coast on Saturday, Aug.27. Not sure what to do and after watching countless weather reports, we decided to cut our vacation short and come home Friday night to prepare. Living right by Raritan Bay and 25 minutes north of the Jersey Shore, we were pretty scared. While it didn't end up being as bad as predicted, this is definitely another "once in a lifetime" experience! Our first true hurricane (not tropical storm) to hit NJ. Now it's Sunday and there's just some wind left but we should be ok. There isn't too much damage where I live but I do know of other areas who got hit much worse.
If you've read this far, I hope you realize now that life is unexpected and anything can change with a moment's notice. I was counting on a quiet August and somehow this month turned into one of busiest and craziest times of my life. I'm glad that I wrote it all down and realize now that many things that happened are "once in a lifetime." But everything is "once in a lifetime" and I plan on sharing some of the mundane events too. Hopefully September will calm down for me but also provide some good stories. Until then here some pictures from my adventures :)
A bientot!
Steph
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