Gearing Up For What's Next...

Leaving Mexico City, best podcast of the year, and what's next.

Hello! As I write this I am sitting on the plane from Mexico City to Vancouver. My entire life is packed into the overhead bin above me and I’m feeling the excitement of moving onto the next adventure!

This isn’t on the plane, but it’s still a nice picture.

I am also being reminded that a huge part of the world still coughs without covering their mouths! People in Mexico City are very particular about coughing. You still see masks on the streets (sick people wear them as a courtesy) and I’ve never seen a Mexican leave a bathroom without washing their hands.

This was not the case during my Texas layover; they may as well remove the bathroom sinks because nobody uses them. Now, the lady across the aisle from me is coughing straight up into the air like she’s cosplaying a fountain. And a kid nearby sounds like they’re about to keel over from throat cancer.

I also forgot they don’t serve food anymore.

Oh well. Adios, Mexico.

TITLES WITH AVVAI

On our last night in the city, Avvai and I spent some time going over our experiences and making a list of titles for stories for our adventures and memories. As I’ve mentioned before, this is a strategy I have for remembering stories and making trips more memorable. I plan on writing these up (and I already have a few) but for now you can be intrigued by the tantalizing titles…

HOW TO MAKE AN ADVENTURE, A.K.A. What’s Next

At the start of June, Avvai and I are planning on biking from Estonia to Turkey.

Avvai has been planning this for months, and now that it’s only a month away I am being allowed to plan as well (which was a wise decision on her part).

Avvai’s duties have been gear, logistics, and money. My duty is around a much more important problem: how will this be a good story?

Avvai has been planning so hard we had to go buy her new glasses.

I have a confession: When Avvai first proposed this trip I was not that excited about it. I like biking, but doing it for days on end doesn’t sound super stimulating to me. My ideal trip involves talking to people and writing about adventures; from what I can tell biking along a highway is a solitary and monotonous endeavour. Plus, it can be dangerous if you’re trying to write at the same time.

So at first, I agreed to go in order to appease Avvai.

However, I am much warmer to the idea now. The big shift came when I started thinking about this adventure as a potential story.

All stories share a common opening trait — a character WANTS something. It could be a sandwich or to destroy a magic ring, but it always begins with a desire. Thus, if I think of myself as a character, I can ask “What do I want from this trip?”. 

However it’s not that simple. The want is important, but even more crucial is the WHY. Frodo goes to destroy the ring so that he can save the shire and return to his normal way of life. Shrek saves Fionna so that his swamp will go back to the way it was before… okay yeah, usually the WHY is to get life back to how it was at the start.

Thus my goal: To survive the trip and get home.

I’m kidding. But it’s true that I can help this be a great story by figuring out my what and why… which I’m not totally sure of yet.

Knowing your what/why as you leave on an adventure helps you prime it for stories. Unfortunately there is also a rule in storytelling that the hero usually doesn’t get what they want at the end, or they get it but they also learn something about themselves that renders it null. Frodo destroys the ring but he is too worldly to go back to the Shire. Shrek doesn’t want his lonely old swamp anymore now that he has friends. In almost all great stories (and in one great song), the character doesn’t get what they want, but they do get what they NEED.

So maybe all this planning is a complete waste of time. Who knows?

So the realistic view is that I’ll get something from this that I never could have guessed, learning and growing in a way that I need while never being able to prepare for. But it can’t hurt to set out with a quest, right?

Either way, I’ll be writing about it. So stay tuned!

MADE ANYTHING COOL LATELY?

We did a table read for our Mort Sahl script and it went beautifully. There were tears shed and multiple people said “this feels like a real movie”. There are still a few edits to be made, but this is almost ready to go out into the world. I can’t wait to let my baby bird go free!

I also have another page of the Gus Is NOT The Chosen One graphic novel (done by the impressive Eric Bellefeuille). It’s ready to be sent out and queried, so wish me luck and if you know any agents or publishers looking for gold, let me know!

Without color it kind of looks like a coloring book… which is maybe an idea for a future project!

Otherwise our final weeks in Mexico were spent working hard, saving up for this bike trip, and seeing friends.

FUN STUFF & RECOMMENDATIONS

Boyd Varty — The Lion Tracker’s Guide To Life (Podcast)

Picture yourself sitting around a fire on the South African savannah. A professional tracker and storyteller, Boyd Varty, is telling you about the time he was almost killed by a crocodile, or his multiple plane crashes, or a face-to-face encounter with a leopard during a wildfire. And even better is that each story is tied to a life lesson or incredible insight.

Here’s a video, but you can also listen to the podcast here. It’s 2 hours of wild stories that both entertain and enlighten. I loved it and can’t wait to read his book. Highly recommend if you like wisdom, stories about African animals, and near death experiences.

CONAN O’BRIEN MUST GO

Avvai and I enjoy when travel shows go off the beaten track and don’t just focus on food. Conan O’Brien Must Go really fits that description even if his pitch is that “you’ll know less about the country after watching this”.

Conan, a very loud American comedian, goes and makes chaos in a handful of beautiful countries. It’s funny, a bit uncomfortable, and a lot of vicarious fun. It’s also started us asking “what would Conan do?” in our travel situations. So far we haven’t been motivated to actually do any of the craziness that he would, but it’s always fun to dream!

GOODBYE

See you next time, thanks for being here. Love you, thanks for reading. I’m going to close my laptop and try to watch as many movies as I can before we land.

This is us in a swan boat, even though it’s hard to see the swan you must believe me that it’s there. It was very romantic.

Love,

Kyle & Avvai