Stuck on a Side Quest.

Erin Mikail Staples -

As I mentioned in a previous post — I wanted to blog about the journey to my next adventure transparently and candidly. Last week was a great start: I was on top of my game, feeling confident, calm, and collected.

Merely 24 hours later — my world was rocked by a family emergency, the unexpected heartbreak of having to put our senior family cat down, travel hiccups, and an unexpected trip to urgent care smacking me in the face.

It's been a week of rearranging schedules, adjusting calls for time zones, and balancing emotions, feelings, and frustrations I wasn't expecting to deal with so suddenly. Sprinkled in between the chaos were numerous calls to an insurance company and juggling interviews and life.

If this journey is akin to Breath of The Wild (we like metaphors and analogies around here). I set out to complete a simple korok puzzle and instead stumbled into a few Guardian Scouts.

This was not the side quest I was expecting this past week.

Talking with my partner about events as they unfolded, I found myself sitting there almost in a shell-shocked state. He compared it to the feeling of walking out of a loud concert venue on the way home; it's suddenly quiet, your ears ringing from the aftermath.

This week my energy was spent stabilizing those emotional reverberations. Getting back to a somewhat normal state.

The internal voices weren't so kind to me last week.

Why are you giving yourself a mental health day when you're technically unemployed?

Why are you taking a break when you have goals, plans, and dreams to achieve?

Everyone will be disappointed in you — you don't have time for a personal crisis right now.

The voices in my head weren't kind at all. Fueled by insecurity, fear, impostor syndrome, and frustration.

"All we can hope... is the [player] will be strong enough to prosper, on [their] own."

To keep with this Legend of Zelda analogy — I'm continuing to focus on awakening my internal powers and understanding what makes me strong in this process.

As much as this month has been horrendous, it has also been one of so much learning and growth.

There's been sort of a quiet vulnerability I've experienced over this past month. I've taken the time to discover what I'm excited about and what I'm not.

Much like Link's journey in Breath of the Wild, I'm finding some peace in these intimate moments in the overwhelming world I'm in. As visiting researcher at the City University of Hong Kong, Kaelan Doyle-Myerscough researched — these moments of intimacy in the overwhelming world of Breath of the Wild are primarily crafted and rhythmic to pull us in. From the sound the game designers put behind the moments of climbing mountains or the clopping of a horse's hooves, we can see these little moments of peace in the chaos. Well, until I can hire a team of audio and visual designers to annotate my life — it's up to me to craft these rituals.

Morning walks, listening to NPR, the routine of checking in with friends and loved ones, and even focusing on my physical wellness all come into play here.

While my journey, like Link's, has its own ups and downs, it also has its hidden gems. Much of the Legend of Zelda games reward curiosity, exploration, and self-discovery through puzzles and narratives. My own journey to finding what's next will only come through curiosity and exploration as well.

Getting stuck on a side quest is okay, as long as you're embracing the journey and not hyper-focused on the final destination.

Let us explore this world that we live in to learn more about ourselves.

Adventure on, my friends 🏔

Erin

Things on my mind this week

Content I consumed

Random things on my mind

Events

Events I’m interested in, excited about, speaking at or attending! As always — stay in touch with what I'm up to by visiting erin.events