by Pat Grant

Created on: August 31, 2008

A year with no responsibilities seems, at first, to be something of a dream. What would I do with a free year? Mostly I would like to travel and write. I love writing and just never seem to have enough time to devote to it. And I have always wanted to travel and see the world. I would visit all my friends.

However, when you take a deeper look at this, can you ever truly be without responsibility, or would you want to? For instance I am single, but I do have cats. That involves a lot of responsibility. Having NO responsibilities would mean that I would have to not have them around for a year, and I would never want that. I would miss them terribly! I suppose I could have them with me part of the time, and just be paying someone to take care of them... but wouldn't even that be fulfilling a responsibility?

Would this mean that all my bills would be paid for a year and I wouldn't have to work? That would be a godsend! But again, I would go insane without something to do. Perhaps as long as I spent a lot of that year writing, it would help. But then even the writing would turn into a responsibility, as it would be something I felt I had to do for myself. Perhaps I just feel overly responsible for too much.

Alright, so I have a year and no responsibilities... the cats will be fine and bills are paid. I think I would like the time to travel, spend some long nights on a quiet beach somewhere warm. I would spend the year traveling to those parts of the world that are warm and have one year winter free! So, the summer would be spent in the British Isles, Germany, Russia, Greece, Italy, and Israel. During our winter months, Australia and New Zealand would be my destination.

I would also spend a lot of time on my hobbies. Probably my strangest hobby is "ghost hunting." I am a member of a paranormal investigation group and would love to spend more time doing that. Other hobbies include gaming (role-playing games), star gazing, and attending conventions (science fiction/media/gaming type conventions).

I would hope the reason I have a year free of responsibilities would be because I had somehow come into a lot, and I mean a LOT, of money. It would be enough to pay off a year's worth of bills and pay for all that traveling. I simply cannot imagine having that sort of freedom though. In reality I am so far in debt I will never afford a regular vacation, much less a year long one. It is nice to dream, but it will never happen.

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