It was a news story about "Unique Gas Station Food."
March 31st, 2021. I don't remember exactly what happened, but I remember it was a really crappy day at work. Like, I got to my car and immediately started crying, kind of crappy day. I had gotten into the habit of driving around town after bad days, but I was just not in the mood to slowly cruise around town. My first thought? Go get black-out-drunk. That was immediately shot down, I had work tomorrow. Second thought? Get an impromptu tattoo. Swiftly shot down.
Third thought? Get on the road and drive. Don't stop until you aren't upset anymore.
That seemed reasonable to me, so I got in the interstate and started driving south away from town, 80 miles an hour and still upset. I kept driving for around 30 minutes, at which point I was feeling better and was no longer crying. At that point, I was only about 15 minutes away from the next town over. I had been there before, as a kid, but had not been back in probably near a decade.
I remembered the nicest part of town was called the Riverwalk, so I looked out for signs until I found my way to it (I had yet to get data on my phone at that point). I found a free parking lot, got out, and started walking.
I walked down the Riverwalk, looking at restaurants, not really in the mood for anything I went by and certainly not in their expected income bracket. So I kept walking, until I left the Riverwalk and started heading into a cheaper part of town. The walk continued until finally I found myself in front of a sushi place, at which point I decided that sounded good, and went in.
It was nearly deserted, only two other people in the whole restaurant. I was seated next to the front window, and my food soon delivered out to me.
I sat there and ate in silence, for about an hour, texting my mum a picture of the menu to show her how far I had driven "for dinner". I finished with a full belly, returned to my car, and drove home.
It was a very pleasant evening, ending my day way better than it started.
I don't remember the exact day, but it was early April, 2021. I was working as a BHT, sitting with clients as they watched TV before therapy started. It was playing the morning news, something nobody was really interested in watching, but then a little local story came on, about "Unique Gas Station Food".
The story was exactly as it sounds, just a local news station talking about weird food you can get at gas stations around the country.
I made an off-hand, flippant comment, about how it would be cool if your entire job was just "Find Weird Food. That's it."
One of the girls watching agreed, jokingly saying I should do just that. She had been in the facility for a month at this point, and it was her second 'stay' with us. We had gotten to know each other fairly well, and she was pretty close with me in terms of staff.
I brushed her off, but she doubled down. Like, no, Mits. You should do it. Again, I brushed her off, that I obviously couldn't do that. And again, she was like. No. Mits. You have to live sometime, YOLO type deal. And she asked me, what's something you've always wanted to do for a long time but never did.
Well, my obvious answer was "skydiving". But I can't do that, because my dad said he would take me when I turned 21.
So he didn't take you. You should just go yourself.
One more time, I brushed her off. Yeah, sure, I'll look into when I get home.
No. Mits. Do it now. Live in the moment.
Something in my head just kind of.... clicked. I can go all the way to another town "for dinner". I can schedule to go skydiving.
So I did. I got my phone out right then and there, we looked up local skydiving schools (? academies? idk) and I scheduled myself to jump out of an airplane.
April 29th, 2021. I jumped out of an airplane. It was amazing, no regrets whatsoever. It was the exact kind of exhilarating I imagined it to be. 5/5 would do again.
That was the start. That click. It was about a news story about "Unique Gas Station Food." My brain finally clicked that if I wanted to, I could just... go do it.
Skydiving? I can just do that.
Driving across the country by myself? I can just do that.
Driving to a tiny town in Canada because it has the same name as my cat and I think it'd be funny? I can, indeed, just do that.