Blogtember, Day 2: three months of freedom

All right, folks. Just to prove my commitment to the cause, here's my second post of the 'Blogtember' series. Today's prompt:

Wednesday, September 4: If you could take three months off from your current life and do anything in the world, what would you do?

This question seems like it ought to be a no-brainer (especially if you establish that money isn't an issue during these three months). Given three months with no obligations, the obvious choice seems to be a whirlwind travel itinerary. I hate to disappoint you if you thought I was leading up to some sort of snarky contrarian response, but that's exactly what I'd do.

There are two major reasons I want to travel: discovery and reconnecting with distant family, so I'd probably split those two right in half. So, without further ado, a brief and woefully inadequate travel itinerary for a 90-day period:

Seven days each in Warsaw, Bialystok, Munich and London, for my extended Polish family across the pond (and yes, that's 28 days already!). Big groups of relatives, so I'd probably be kept busy by what they wanted to show me as much as what I wanted to see on my own.


Seven days each in New York City and Pittsburgh, for the American branch of my extended family (I'd kindly ask you to refrain from letting my family know I'd like to enjoy New York City for my own reasons, as well). In both of these cases, my relatives all have day jobs, so I'd likely get to spend a good deal of time catching up with old friends and just exploring on my own.

From here on out, it would be all about satisfying my own sense of adventure, or to reconnect with old friends. Five-day stints in Minneapolis, Portland, Vancouver, Austin, Montreal and San Diego. I'm sure none of those have the immediate glamour of Paris or Tokyo, but given how rarely I've gotten to travel, I'm going for breadth of experience here.

And of course, I'd round things out with my last eight days in Chicago - giving me a splendid opportunity to catch up in my hometown and settle back into the pace of things before returning to the real world. After all, an early return is the perfect opportunity to unwind after a whirlwind of travel.