What’s your favorite thing to do on the weekend? Explore.

April 29th, 2013

If you asked me to describe my dream Saturday, I’d immediately tell you that after breakfast tacos it’s all spent exploring.

Any type of exploring is fine. High fives if you’re out in the world, seeing new things, and boosting your Vitamin D. But personally, when I think exploration, I’m not envisioning a trip to that one Chicken & Rice cart and back. I’m not talking about hopping in a cab en route to one of those places that Thought Catalog says you have to check out in your twenties.

My best days in New York have undoubtedly been the ones that started without a list of places to go. Whether we set off in the morning or in the evening, I wandered in good company. And without fail I found myself in quaint shops, on new islands, in beautiful parks, and amidst impromptu dance parties. When you skip the plan, you remove the pressure of judging how “worthwhile” an experience was.

If you want my opinion, I say explore without the maps.

I say explore until your hands feel fat because you just started walking and never asked where to.

Explore with friends who vow not to look at their phones.

Explore new shops, streets, alleyways, and neighborhoods.

Explore by foot and don’t forget to look up.

Explore until you stumble upon that obscure barn museum of Civil War miniatures.

Explore with a confidence that eventually you’ll find your way back and until then anything is fair game.

Explore where you’re sheepishly checking if doors are *actually* locked and until you find yourself trying to explain in broken Spanish that you wanted all of that food plus the Chicharrones.

Explore by saying yes more than no.

Explore with people who are always game.

Explore until you’re lost and then celebrate because that was always the intention.