Flightster

My Eyeballs in a Shot Glass

• by Colin Wright
• on July 29th, 2010
• 2 Comments

Blurry

I’m staring down at the bathroom sink. A ceramic toothbrush holder with only one lonely occupant sits next to a pump-action toothpaste container, opposite a facial-razor set that looks well-used.

My most immediate concern, however, are the two shot glasses that are resting placidly behind the faucet, each the solemn bearer of one of my eyes.

At least I THINK that’s what those are, at least. I pick them up and hold them a few inches from my face. Okay, yeah, these are the ones. There’s no room for error here, as picking up the wrong one would mean, at best, putting my contacts in the wrong eyes, at worst splashing my poor pupils with a swig of something alcoholic and burny.

This morning I woke up on the couch in the apartment of a guy I’d only met the day before last. My traveling companions and I had unexpectedly spent the night drinking with some locals instead of taking in the sites, sounds and tastes of Indianapolis, our current stop.

Plans

We had big plans. We were going to check out the horse races. Check out downtown. We were going to take a look at the museum and some of the surrounding area. Instead, we ended up snagging a bottle of Australian wine, partaking in a local beer-tasting and cruising back to the (air conditioned!) apartment of our new friend Rabah, ready to drink all night, dance our asses off and wake the neighbors with loud and rowdy behavior.

It’s easy to look at this situation and wonder why we’d even come to Indiana in the first place, if this was all we ended up doing. What’s the point of travel if you don’t explore?

I’m going to say something here that might irritate the travel purists, but the way I see it, purity is way-overrated to begin with.

The traditional ‘visit a new place and see the sights and take some photos and buy a t-shirt’ method is a perfectly viable method of travel, and is one I definitely enjoy while touring around the world, hopping from place to place.

But travel can serve many purposes, and I find that I generally get the most pleasure out of a new experience when I’m thrust into another person’s reality; where I’m able to live the way that they live, see what they see, smell what they smell, taste what they taste and hang out with the people they hang out with (where they hang out), even if just for a short period of time.

This has been my experience in Indianapolis. And we got in on two extremes.

Indy Guides

On one hand is the married couple, beautiful bouncing baby girl in tow, living in the suburbs of Indy. There are big, colorful plastic toys on the lawn, everything is childproof and the main sources of entertainment are group-focused board games and tossing an inflatable ball around and giggling with the 2 and a half year old as she chases it around and makes funny faces (both are incredibly entertaining).

The father in this family is a talented and successful blogger, and the driving force behind his work is to provide for his wife and daughter. And though he can still tell a mean joke and have a good time, with everything he does, you can see the resolve and responsibility in his eyes. I’m no stranger to these things, but I can tell that his dedication is different in some way, since failure would mean a great deal more for him and his family than it would for just me.

On the other side of things is Rabah, an enthusiastic mobile app developer with a smile on his face and a party on his mind.

Intending only to hang out for part of the day, we ended up spending all night at Rabah’s apartment; one-half of a duplex that he’s tricked out with a custom-built bar (with glowing tubes of bubbling water on each side), stylish art and a great big mirror over his bed upstairs.

We went wine- and beer-tasting, then spent hours listening to music, drinking New Zealand vodka and telling sex stories with Rabah and his friend from the other side of the duplex, Steve (the one about the 4th of July, the shots and the alley by the stadium was a good one, Steve).

Even though I had to fish my contact lenses out of shot glasses the next morning and my traveling companions were a little worse for the wear, headache-wise, we all agreed that it was worth it, even if only for the wild dancing and new inside jokes.

Clear Vision

The point is that my traveling companions and I had a wonderful time – despite not really seeing anything that you’re SUPPOSED to see while in Indianapolis – and we got to experience two lifestyles that were completely different from each other (and our own), as well.

We had a blast enjoying the perks of family life. We also had a great time (and a hangover) enjoying the perks of Indy bachelordom. What’s more, we were able to share a bit about what makes our lives fun, as well, so everyone walked away with a slightly different perspective than before. Even if no radical shifts in attitude occur, it’s important to be able to see where other people are coming from, and these kinds of exchanges provide the opportunity to do so.

So the next time you’re stressing over travel plans or worrying over something not going just right, remember that simply taking part in everyday life can be just as rewarding – if not more – as any guided, packaged, shrinkwrapped tour you can take.

Shot glasses optional.

Colin Wright

Colin Wright is a minimalist, branding expert and serial entrepreneur. While running his blog Exile Lifestyle ,his branding studio Colin Is My Name and his e-publishing business ebookling. Colin travels the world (moving to a new country every 4 months), meeting up with amazing people, giving talks (to audiences ranging from tech industry professionals to college students to Catholic school girls) and hunting down new and interesting experiences.