{"id":7261,"date":"2021-03-30T22:51:42","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T22:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sallybzhao.com\/?p=7261"},"modified":"2024-07-16T17:30:20","modified_gmt":"2024-07-17T00:30:20","slug":"life-if-well-lived-is-long-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sallybzhao.com\/life-if-well-lived-is-long-enough\/","title":{"rendered":"Life if Well Lived is Long Enough"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"\">One year since the pandemic started, and almost a year since I (re)started this blog. A lot has changed this year and most notably, my perspective on life and what it means to me. Taking a step back from \u201cnormalcy\u201d has opened my eyes to what normal really should be. Like many others, I was in an endless cycle of work, social events, commitments, and arrangements. I hardly had time to breathe, but that was exciting wasn\u2019t it?? I felt like I was doing something right since I was busy all the time. Now I realize that I was busy for the wrong reason &#8211; for others and not for myself. With everything stripped away last year, I realized how blind I\u2019ve been to my dreams. As my personal goals have surfaced through the nothingness of the outside world, I\u2019m busier than I ever was before. And this time, just for myself, as I\u2019m finally heading down the path I\u2019ve always dreamt for myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">There was a shift mid-pandemic for me, where my rationalizing fear didn\u2019t paralyze me anymore. The voice inside my head that kept repeating \u201cWhat if\u2026\u201d switched to \u201cWhat if I didn\u2019t?\u201d and the latter scared me even more. It was the impetus I needed to start planning the life I envisioned. This planning came into fruition when I went on my <a href=\"https:\/\/sallybzhao.com\/6-national-parks-in-6-days\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">nomadic trip<\/a> last fall. I bought a <a href=\"https:\/\/sallybzhao.com\/my-first-one-way-ticket-to\/\">one-way ticket<\/a> and truly lived in the moment for the first time, letting my feelings dictate where I would go next. After spending six weeks in the Southwest, I felt called to head to Boston, where I\u2019d celebrate my birthday with friends. Little did I know, the universe had a bigger plan for me there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">Life hasn\u2019t been the same since I had my first taste of being a digital nomad. As work-from-home policies continue to extend, my possibility to work anywhere expands. Late January, I went on a month-long trip around the Northwest, working through three weeks and taking one week off. After, I started doing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.workaway.info\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Workaway<\/a> while maintaining my full-time job, and it\u2019s been a thrill to experience life this way. I\u2019ve made new friends, developed more skills, and learned from others\u2019 life stories. Currently, I\u2019m home in SF to get my affairs in order before embarking on another months-long trip. These recent travels have steered me towards a different direction in life and it\u2019s given me more courage to take future leaps of faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"\">I\u2019m not sure if there\u2019s a lesson here, but I wanted to share how my mindset has changed during Covid. I\u2019m sure everyone will come out of this a different person, and the question is: are you truer to yourself now than you were previously? I hope so. It\u2019s something I\u2019m still working towards, and I\u2019m thankful to be on the right path.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One year since the pandemic started, and almost a year since I (re)started this blog. A lot has changed this&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[102,36,103,104],"class_list":["post-7261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thoughts","tag-life","tag-lifestyle","tag-live-well","tag-stoic"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Life if Well Lived is Long Enough - sallybzhao<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sallybzhao.com\/life-if-well-lived-is-long-enough\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Life if Well Lived is Long Enough - sallybzhao\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One year since the pandemic started, and almost a year since I (re)started this blog. 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