"Wild Whiskey Willow" started off as a nickname for me. Jokingly, a name to use should I ever find find myself in a place where I would need to become a stripper :) (I have to attribute that to my good friends Jacqueline & Emily). Those jokes aside, "Wild Whiskey Willow" has turned into much more than that. It has become the name of who I always wanted to be, the places I always wanted to go, and the lifestyle I always wanted to have: spontaneous, adventurous, positive & in the moment.
After years & years of wanting to move to Colorado & never taking the leap (due to fear, finances, and a not-right-for-me boyfriend), I finally took the risk last September. The decision was a long-time coming. I had spent years talking to EVERYONE about how I wanted to move to Colorado. I would especially complain to my good friend, Potts. Almost every Sunday for quite some time, Potts & I would chat on the phone about life. Finally one day he blatantly said to me that he was tired of hearing it. That he had listened to my rants for far too long, and to call him when I "ACTUALLY move to Colorado." Click.
Silence.
Sh*t.
That clarifying moment was all I needed to light a fire under my a**. Within weeks I had put in my 2 weeks notice at work, packed up my car with only $2000 saved (I'd secretly been saving for a year: for travel & my first 2 months rent) and convinced my dad to spontaneously drive across the country with me. I only had 2 friends in Colorado, no job lined up, but thankfully did have a place to stay. As luck would have it, 2 days after I put in my 2 weeks notice at my current job on the east coast, they offered me a full-time position to work-from-home, remotely, in Colorado. What?!! Yes!!! (My acceptance was later followed by some dumbfounded, exuberant cursing :)
I spent 2 months in Colorado Springs but all along my destination was always Crested Butte; a town I fell absolutely, head-over-heels, in love with a year prior on a random solo snowboarding trip. The long-awaited (by many) & much needed breakup between my long-distance boyfriend & I, occurred a few weeks later. Two weeks after that- Hello Crested Butte!
It's been an amazing, wild, unexpectedly, perfect ride. I moved to CB and within a day, met the love of my life (Hi Shamus!), and countless other outgoing and like-minded people. I live in a town where we chase the sun, lose track of time, turn strangers into friends, and where a hug or friendly wave hello is never far away. A place where the old, the young, the long-time locals & the new kids in town, come together to live and love, in what we believe to be, Paradise.
Hope you all had as fantastic of a year as I did- and if you didn't.... what are you gonna do next year to change it? Life is short & it is here to be enjoyed.
Listen to the MUSTN’TS, child,
Listen to the DON’TS
Listen to the SHOULDN’TS
The IMPOSSIBLES, the WONT’S
Listen to the NEVER HAVES
Then listen close to me-
Anything can happen, child,
ANYTHING can be
-Shel Silverstein
wei-wu-wei,
-WWW
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