Red Rock Reminiscing: The Planned vs The Unexpected

I can finally breathe. This weekend I completed my move from Southern California to the Pacific Northwest. I’ve spent the last three-ish weeks in this weird sort of limbo between my old apartment in San Diego, my parents’ house in Arizona, and the highways of the southwest.

During the final week of my journey, I was blessed to be able to make the drive from Arizona to Washington with my boyfriend who flew down on his spring break to help me move (MVP). We decided to take our time on the drive up and make a stop in Moab, Utah to explore Arches National Park.

Between long hours on the road and grand views of red rocks and sandstone arches, I was able to do some serious reflection on the major changes my life has undergone so far this year.

The Planned

I’ve always been a planner, a list-maker, a chronic organizer. Sometimes it’s a blessing, sometimes it’s a curse, and I’ve learned to live with it either way. When I decided to make the move across a couple states, you better believe I had a somewhat meticulously laid out plan. This plan covered everything, from what I needed to pack to what I wanted to do while at home in Arizona to where I wanted to stop on the drive. On top of this, I’ve had an ongoing job search for about two months now, though I do have a part-time gig lined up in Washington so far (more on this later).

To paint a full picture for you, I even had an ever-evolving Google Doc with all this stuff on it so I could keep everything straight, attach links, and whatever else my hyper-organized mind needed to do to cope with the move. It’s okay to laugh at this and think I’m crazy - that’s what my family did and I do it, too.

So here I am, plan in hand and ready to make the move up north. But you know what they say about the best-laid plans.

The biggest change to the driving plan was that we decided to only visit Arches National Park instead of also stopping by Bryce Canyon National Park, as we originally wanted to do. Weather was not our friend on this trip. Luckily, we had gorgeous clear skies and sunshine on our day in the park, but the majority of the drive was spent through hard desert rain and windy mountain snow.

That being said, Arches was incredible. It’s a smaller park and we were able to do almost everything we wanted to in the one day we were there. We got to nerd out, too, and learn about how the arches and other unique features of the park developed.

The highlight for me was the uphill trek to Delicate Arch. Most of the hike was “trail-less.” Like, there was a trail, but it was mostly implied. You were walking over these giant rocks with huge open sky all around you, allowing you to see much of the rest of the park.

Arriving at the top and seeing Delicate Arch for the first time was almost jaw-dropping. The arch was massive and beautiful up close. The only thing taking away from it was the masses of people running around everywhere and yelling to each other from across the rocks. I’m not hating; everyone deserves to appreciate nature in their own way. I am just more of the quiet type who could sit and soak up all that majesty in complete silence/introspection and be the happiest little camper.

Arches was an awesome experience and I’m so grateful we were able to do it on this drive. It definitely helped me forget the stresses of moving at least for a little while. Ironically though, once we hit the road and regained cell service, I was overwhelmed by a whole bunch of new stressors.

Something I heard in a MeatEater podcast episode we listened to on the drive really started to hit home in a hurry. It was the episode with Alex Messenger, who had survived a grizzly attack. At one point, host Steven Rinella had said something along the lines of, “Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face.”

And boy, I feel like I got punched square in the nose.

The Unexpected

When notifications started flooding my phone, almost all of them were about stories related to COVID-19. Sports were essentially canceled. Schools were closing or going virtual (my boyfriend even found out he had an “extra” week of spring break). People were self-quarantining and social distancing. There was no toilet paper anywhere.

When we made it to Boise, I got an email from my new boss in Washington saying they were postponing all programs and that my upcoming shifts were canceled. I must’ve read the email six or seven times before it really sank in. I was now entering my new home with no income whatsoever.

I told myself I’d be in the same (or maybe even a worse) boat if I had stayed in San Diego. My old coworkers at my sports jobs were also out of work and the aquatic center I used to work at was shut down.

The plan felt like it was unraveling quickly.

My boyfriend, bless his heart, assured me everything would be alright. That we’re a team and we’d figure it out together. Life’s unexpected quirks kill me sometimes, but I believe him. So I’m picking up the pieces of my broken plan, rolling with it, and learning that maybe it’s okay to be a little less structured.

Now, I’ve got lots of time to devote to reading, learning, and writing. I can really dive deep into this blog like I meant to from the beginning. Maybe being out of work is a blessing in disguise to help me get back into what makes me truly happy. It won’t pay the bills, but it’ll sure feed my soul in the meantime.

If you’re struggling right now with any unexpected challenges, pandemic related or otherwise, I urge you to fuel your passions. Yeah, it sucks to not be making money. It’s scary and draining. But if you have something that makes you happy that you’ve been neglecting (like myself), put your energy into that.

In a way, we all got punched in the face by this thing and our plans have been thrown off. But that just gives us a chance to rise to the challenge, develop new plans, and build ourselves up in ways we may not have seen before.