the bold dev

I’m framing my answer in the context of “what do you currently not do because of time or money.”

If I start thinking of what I would do if I had unlimited funds, the answer would be drastically different.

1. Travel
2. Curate a library

Travel

Baby Melissa would dream of growing up and landing a job that would take her all over the world. I imagined myself as a diplomat, a flight attendant, a manager at an international hotel. On occasion, I even pictured myself as an FBI or CIA agent.

As a teen, I took a trip to Fiji, Australia, and New Zealand. It was the first trip I took without my family and I still remember it fondly, decades later. At the time, I excitedly thought to myself that this would be my first of many trips.

As it turns out, life presented me with a ton of issues that I frankly didn’t know how to handle. I didn’t get to travel abroad in college like I wanted. I haven’t even been to Europe.

A huge reason I don’t travel that often is money. Not only could I not afford the trip itself, I would have to take the time off from work. At some point in my life, taking time off meant that I would not get paid. If I took a trip, I would not have any money for bills when I do get back.

Nowadays, I do have the privilege of PTO, so traveling is not out of the question. While I don’t have to worry about the time I take, I do have to consider other added costs. Mainly doggy boarding, which can be pricey in the city. Since I’m still on the road to financial independence, traveling is still a rare occurrence.

I’m also conscious of how travel and tourism can negatively impact an area. When I was a teenager, I had a list of destinations a mile long. Today, there are a lot of places on my list that I would think twice about. For example, Hawaii or Puerto Rico. Don’t get me wrong, I would love to visit these islands! But I know people can behave horrendously, to the point where natives and locals have developed a love/hate relationship with tourists and tourism in general.

And I don’t blame them. I still can’t believe that someone was comfortable enough to burn 3 businesses down while on vacation in Puerto Rico. All because she was asked to leave due to her own belligerent behavior. This is one of the articles that covered it.

I know that I would never do anything disrespectful to other people or their homes. I just want to ensure that when I do travel somewhere, I am traveling as ethically as I can.

Curate a library

If money was not a concern, I would pick a beautiful house in the city that had the space for a beautiful library.

I want sturdy bookshelves that go from floor to ceiling. Those shelves would be filled with my favorites, like the complete works of Jane Austen or all seven Harry Potter books. I would go through periods where I would experiment with how to organize it all. Do I want to organize them alphabetically by author’s last name like a sane person or do I throw caution to the wind and sort them by color?

I would find the perfect reading chair where I can curl up and read. I would have to fight my pup for this chair because it would be the perfect spot for a nap underneath the plush blankets, especially on a cold winter day.

Bonus points if there is a big window or a fireplace. Rainy days in that room would be so dreamy.

Bonus: What would I do if I had unlimited funds?

I think I would straight up fight Bezos, Musk, and all these billionaires. How are you going to tell me that you have all the money in the world and not use it to better society? Especially when you can make such a huge impact and NOT MAKE A DENT to your fortune.

I digress.