East to the West
On August 11, me and my friend went on a long road trip driving from New York to San Jose. This trip was about 3500 miles.
The trip was long, but it was fantastic.
I started from New York City to Baltimore, then Pittsburgh. After I met up with my friend, we officially started our trip driving across Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and then reached our last stop, California.
I needed this trip so much. I am young and dumb.
I have fell in love, and got my heart broken. I am very much lost in life and scared of the unknown future.
I have doubted myself.
This trip, was a therapy.
Mentally, I felt that I know how to fix myself.
“To study the self is to forget the self.“ I have spent quite amount of time discussing and thinking about the phrase by the Zen Master. Sometimes, you probably have to drag your soul out of your body and look at what is outside your body and mind. I know this might not make any sense, but we, human, are bothered with our emotion and feelings. When your girlfriend broke up with you, you were sad. When you went into your favorite shop and found out the shoes that you are dying wanted to buy didn't have your size, you were devastated. When you got funding for your startup company from a giant, you were happy to death.
We are controlled by our emotions sometimes. To forget the self, I guess is that we turn our head to our rational spirits. Look at yourself and the world. Forget about what controls you. Forget about how some of the non-existing and toxic feelings that haunt you. Then it is the best time to study the self.
Life is like the road trip. You keep going because you have a destination. But sometimes the destination doesn’t matter at all. The point is you keep going, keep adapting, and look at what life has given you at the present time and then embrace. Make the best out of it and then move on.
I recorded some of the moments through the trip.
I took my camera every where.
Because I think every moment deserve a celebration, and every moment we live, defines our existence.