Small Worlds - The Ventures Before The Adventures
Well, it’s time to brush off the cobwebs, folks, because it’s been far too long since I‘ve written one of these. Or written at all, for that matter.
Welcome back to Gannon’s travel blog! I never properly wrapped up my last blog in 2024 after feeling a little burnt out from traveling so much. Sorry if you were expecting a “final thoughts” post. But you probably know what I would say - it was an absolutely life-changing experience. It has significantly altered the course of my life and I believe it’s an experience everyone should have before they exit this mortal plane.
What have I been up to since then? Well, before my European excursion, some of you may know that I worked at a desk job. A small part of my previous career was crafting cute animated videos for car dealerships. Sounds fun, right?
Most of it was actually tedious, soul-sucking, life-draining, borderline factory drone work. Keeping me chained to a computer in the dark, concrete floored and freezing cold basement in my parents’ house made me more miserable than I could truly grasp at the time. Two things kept me sane - going into the office twice a week and socializing with my now good friend Kohl. The second thing - fantasizing about quitting my job, booking a flight to Ireland, and figuring it out from there.
Getting laid off from that job was the universe telling me something. So I made my fantasy a reality.
So, one life-changing adventure later, I realized that desk work wasn’t truly for me. I didn’t get a sliver of fulfillment from sending cookie-cut videos into the nebulous ether that was the various SEO webpages for car dealerships in Podunk, Nowhere, USA. I was in need of a new career that keeps me out of the house, something that keeps me socially engaged on a daily basis, and something that keeps me on my toes every day. Literally.
Enter: The Starbucks Coffee Company. Yeah, you’ve probably heard of it before. I got hired there on the spot by the manager after telling her about my ventures in Europe, my enjoyment of DnD, and my newfound desire for daily social interaction. For the past two years, I’ve worked my way into a supervisor position and helped build a community of regular customers in the Cherry Creek neighborhood of Denver. Something about the smile on people’s faces when I hand them their coffee just gives me a sense of fulfillment that I could never achieve in my previous career.
Look at me, I look and sound so disgustingly corporate. But it’s true, and I don’t think it has anything to do with the infamous Siren. I just like serving people and, more importantly, making the smile. Now the only thing to do is to find a job where I can do that and not work crazy inconsistent hours. But that’s a topic for another post.
Enough about the past, now it’s about the present - I am in Iceland! My good friends Dan, Julie, Logan and Avery and I have been planning on this for at least a year now, and we’re all so hyped to finally be doing this!
My immediate thought upon getting off the 7-hour flight was that my packing choices didn’t go to waste. (Also, I just so happened to be assigned the exit row - lucky me!) I spared no expense in ensuring I had the gear I needed to stay warm. So when the light sprinkling of rain and the rush of cold air hit my face off the plane, it was like a sigh of relief from the earth itself. Plus, the weather in Denver has been 90ºF+ for what feels like ages, so getting some mid-fall weather this week will cool me down.
My first task was to pick up our rental car. I quickly discovered that, while I know what a kilometer is, I don’t really know how to convert them to miles. At least Iceland drives on the right side of the road, so this won’t be a crazy adjustment. I’m actually really looking forward to driving all around this country. Since I currently don’t own a car in the US, I like to take every opportunity I can get to drive a car.
I stopped at a grocery store for breakfast (although it’s more like dinner, since I haven’t slept since 8am on August 22), and I am finishing this post at a small cafe near the airport while I wait for the rest of the gang to arrive from Chicago. Our next stop is the Blue Lagoon!
The title of this post is Small Worlds. While in the airport security line in Denver, I crossed paths and caught up with Kelsey, an old high school friend of mine. Small world, right? Check out the song by Mac Miller.
