Wednesday, December 22, 2010

A Friend's Search for Heartbreaking Beauty


Growing up I had a few really close friends. One of them was Sonya. She had white-blonde hair and the most adorable smile. And one thing I remember about her all these years later is that she had the best art supplies and an insane amount of talent for a little girl. Did you ever have a friend like that? When she colored with colored pencils, it was like there was no white paper underneath. I swear she out-colored all of us, even in like first grade. And don't even get me started about the notes she passed me in high school or the handmade gifts (like the "How We Look Book" she gave me one year, full of photos of her family with hilarious little descriptions) or when she started entering (and of course, winning) photo contests in high school.


So it's no wonder that today she's a super talented artist, about to set out on the adventure of a lifetime. She's planning to spend a couple of years (YEARS!) wandering the globe documenting what she sees with photographs and writing. When she told me she was going, I started to think "Boy, am I lame." and then, "What's going on with everyone these days?" Didn't I just mention how I just recently ran across an acquaintance of mine who took his entire family (kids and all) on a year-long bike adventure to Mexico and blogged about the whole experience? What is it about right now that's causing people to pick up and take off like that? Or is this something that people have been doing forever and I'm just now catching wind of it?

Sonya says she's "sacrificing security for the sake of experience." She says it's not a new story. That lots of us get jobs to buy cars to drive to work to...wait...what are we doing? Why are we stuck in this grind?

I can see where she's coming from. "Regular" life gets kind of stagnant and you forget that you only get one chance at it, so you better make the best of it. I have to admit I'm a bit jealous of her freedom and I'm anxious to live vicariously through her for a while. She's already seen more of the world than I have, and she has an incredible eye for finding heartbreaking beauty.



She's looking for financial backers, if you can throw a buck or 20 her way, she'd be forever grateful (and I think there are perks to it, too!). If you have $750 to pledge, she will let you choose a location on her itinerary and she'll create a blog post with photos just for you. To learn more about Sonya and her project, check out her Kickstarter pledge pageand her blog, which has a ton of gorgeous artwork and writing.

I'll be checking in with her progress periodically, so c'mon back. Live vicariously with me!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

~blush~

I remember you being the best sewer ever, and the most stylish girl I knew! I was lucky to have you, I still am! Our friends help make us who we become, and I couldn't be happier for it.

That family bike trip is amazing! Looking forward to reading through their blog.

Blake Himsl Hunter said...

the past year has made me think about doing something like this, that life experience is more important than work experience....

Maybe I can talk Kristen into something like this when my brothers and I sell my mom's house and we are debt free.