As I sit in SFO waiting to take off on this adventure, I feel an erie since if calm. I've never been this clam before a trip. I don't know if its because I'm an older, more experienced traveler, or I'm still in shock from what my dad did. Or maybe this trip is just too big for me to comprehend. I think it's a combination of all of those reasons along with this last one: this is the first thin I've done in my life that is entirely for me and about me. I chose the spots on the trip and how long I would be at each one, there's no pressure for me to get good grades like there was during my year abroad, and no one is going with me. If I want to spend 4 days on a beach in Australia, no one can stop me.
Speaking of my itinerary here is the list of places I will be hitting among the way: Auckland, Perth, Cairns, Alice Springs, Sydney, Seoul, Kathmandu, Doha, Vienna, Berlin, Prague, Bratislava, Budapest, Krakow, Gdansk, Warsaw, and a few others I haven't quite decided on.
Shoes. Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love shoes. So it honestly pains me to say- I one brought 3 pairs: one pair of rainbows (flip-flops), one pair of hiking boots (for Nepal), and lastly one pair of brand new stark white converse. I know, I know. White tennis shoes?!? Really?!? (maybe she really has lost her mind!) That may be true, but its not because of the shoes.
Here's the story: in college I learned of this artist (I can't remember his name and the Internet here isn't great so google it). This guy presented a series of blank white canvases and they toured the world. (REALLY! That's ART now! That's total bull shit!) his theory was that along the way while touring, the canvases would get dirty and marked up and scratched and each would become and individual work of art created by the journey that it had taken. For example: canvas #4 may have been accidentally dropped and now has a dent in the side, while canvas #1 may have had a little bit of coffee spilled on it by the delivery man. The world took blank canvases and created art through the journey.
So, like those canvases an my blank white converse, I too have now become a (somewhat) blank canvas on this trip for the world to create into a work of art. Some would argue (possibly myself included) that the world has already been 'creating' me as I go through life. But I think to take yourself out of your comfort zone and immerse yourself in other cultures and new experiences is to force those converse to walk through mud.
I will miss all of you. I will be safe, I always am.
