There's something exceedingly interesting about places I've never been, things I've never seen, people I've never tried speaking to. Barney's number one rule on "How I Met Your Mother" was, among other things, "New is always better," and I am inclined to agree. I'm constantly drawn in by the temptations of new experiences. It's why I don't drink or do drugs or whatever; it seems like people who do always end up getting caught up in that one thing, and I can't spend all of my time on one thing.

And that's what inspired me to take a 12-hour road trip to Nashville with my boyfriend--a sentence full of firsts for me--to see the eclipse (another first).

The first of the previous sentence: 12-hour road trip. I'm accustomed to making day trips a few times a year, but always within Texas where gas is affordable and the people are friendly. This trip was the first time I drove out of the state I was born in (my family and I have gone all over the place, but I'd never driven across the Texas border), as it takes over six hours just to leave Texas. Driving through Arkansas and most of Tennessee was a blur of coffee and night-blindness, but we made it.

The second first of that sentence up there: Nashville. I went 19 years without ever going east. Every time my family took a trip, we spent the entire time going west. West was comfortable. West was familiar. And still, I went east. The words of Patrick Star perfectly encapsulate my feelings toward it: "East? I thought you said, 'Weast.'" And although that quote kind of loses its charm when typed out, I believe it hasn't lost its meaning. I can no longer claim that the east doesn't exist, for I have seen it with my own hardened eyes.

The third first of the ever-distant sentence that you may have now forgotten: my boyfriend. Yeah, I never really had one of those. They always seemed unnecessary and like they took away any female's sense of originality and spontaneity, but when my best friend became my boyfriend, my opinion changed. I learned that boyfriends don't make girls boring unless the girl was boring, to begin with (no offense, boring people, you're probably happy). We do all the crazy stuff we always have, and it's been a good new experience to have someone by my side. But y'all don't care about that; you care about...

The last first of that sentence I wrote earlier: the eclipse. A little backstory: my ~BFF~ of around eight years lives in Nashville, so we drove there to hang out with her and to look at the Moon and Sun do a cool thing. She said the best place to watch it would be this small town called Gallatin, where the eclipse would be 100% visible, so we went there, and I'm so glad we did. The best moment of the eclipse wasn't when I was looking up, but when I was looking around at my friends and realized that I wasn't wearing sunglasses, that my surroundings were dimly lit because the Moon decided it was time to cover up the light.

Driving for over 20 hours in four days was a challenge, but the fact that I was able to do it and that no one was harmed, not even my lime green 2011 Ford Fiesta, made me appreciate the opportunities I have to experience things not many can. I can go anywhere if I really want to, and that's the most reassuring thing that I have ever typed.