Irene is a Reminder to
Live Life to the Fullest

The hurricane Irene is a great reminder to live life to the fullest and enjoy life, you never know what’s going to happen next. I spent the last four days traveling in the beautiful Southern Baja California Sur area of Mexico, while following the path of the hurricane Irene via internet and news, praying and hoping my family in New York would be unaffected by the storm. My family is fine, our area in Dutchess county New York did not suffer from the storm, and I am on my way home to my family, currently in Atlanta. I take the this hurricane (and earthquakes, flooding, wildfires and everything else our country has experienced the past week) as a reminder to urge you to live Skimbaco lifestyle; live life to the fullest, enjoy life, and be prepared for the unexpected things in life, don’t wait to live. Here is a picture of me on a boat in the Sea of Cortez with my travel buddies Lisa of Hammock in Paradise, Rachelle of The Travel Bite and Mardi of eat. live. travel. write.

Be Prepared

Make plans, and be prepared for multiple options of what might happen. It truly disheartens me to hear how some people think the hurricane emergency preparing in New York City was overacted – being prepared is never bad. Not preparing is like never using sunscreen or a seat belt. On 99.99% of the time you are driving in a car you probably didn’t really need the seat belt. But it can save your life on the 0.01% time. And don’t even get my started with sunscreen and see my picture with long sleeves on a boat. But even when it comes to everyday life, and not just natural disasters – you should be prepared for things, good and bad. Being prepared gives you confidence to know what to do, let’s you live with less stress, and ultimately makes you a happier person and more likely to live adventurously and spontaneously do things to enjoy life more. Even people who know me well can say I plan everything, and yet I’m the most spontaneous person they’ve ever met. It may sound contradictory. Well, I do make lots of plans, and am usually five steps ahead and have a plan B, C, D and E, and that makes it very easy to be prepared for just about anything and be ready to step in the next plan when the other one didn’t work out. That’s life, things don’t always go the way we plan, and we just need to be willing to move on and make the best out of it and be open to other options, and sometimes the things we learn this way are even better than the option A. I would have never met my husband or moved to the US if I had lived my life the way I had originally planned, and meeting my husband and having a family with him is the best that has ever happened to me.

Taking Chances

When it comes to safety and being smart – never ever take chances. Don’t ever think skipping an important safety step “just this once”. But take chances on trying new things, and be open to new experiences. When you are prepared, it is easier to take chances! Try new foods, meet new people, try new hobbies, travel to new places, learn new skills. Take a chance on living Skimbaco lifestyle and truly living life to the fullest, one small step at the time. You can teach yourself to be more adventurous by starting small new things that take you out of your comfort zone. Many times it also just takes time to be educated to see that the things we are worried about are not a big deal. For example when I was telling my friends about going to a trip to Mexico, many were worried and warned me of the dangers of the country. Sure, there are places that are unstable in Mexico, but did you know that the country is about 761,600 square miles large? That’s about three times the size of Texas, you wouldn’t the entire south by just visiting one city in Texas, now would you? Being prepared and educated allows us to take chances and try new things, and I am so thrilled I took a chance on Mexico, and traveled there for the first time. It will not be my last. Yes, that’s me, horseback riding in Montana this summer, directly to riding from airport.

Live in the Moment

So many times people do the planning, make sure everything is the way they want, and then are so stressed that everything doesn’t go as planned that they forget to enjoy the moment. Just stop. You can prepare, but you can’t predict the future, you still need to live in the moment and why ruin the moment by worrying? And even if things don’t go exactly how you planned – don’t ruin the moment just because. I do not get the Bridezilla mentality AT ALL. Why not just live in the moment and make the best of it? Humor helps so much in situations when things are not going the way you planned and the unexpected things make our lives rich, and often are the best things in our life. Don’t let amazing things in your life to pass you, just because you didn’t plan it to happen. The dolphins in the Sea of Cortez are showing how to enjoy life as they were following our boat and wave surfing and jumping in the waves. Live in the moment, make the best out of it, and enjoy small and big things in life. I will be sharing more travel stories from this summer at Skimbaco Travel in the upcoming weeks, if you’d like to read about my travels, please subscribe to the Skimbaco Travel feed.