Prologue to
Thursday, May 22, 2014
6:58 AM
16 days of numerous planes,
trains, cities, and countries was an absolute whirlwind. In the 221,184 seconds
of mostly bliss, some moments vividly stick out. Looking over the Adriatic Sea
on the promenade in Split, paddle-boating and sitting in the
middle of Lake Zurich, sitting atop a rock on the top of a mountain in
Uetliberg, staring lustlingly at the Tuscan countryside from a train, hiking
along the coast of Cinque Terre, being awestruck at the Statue of David…..
All done purposefully- I found
clarity in these precise moments. These moments were infinite, I closed my eyes
as to pretend I was taking pictures and storing them permanently in
my memory. These were simple, happy moments that forced me to reflect on
how I'd been fortunate enough to get to these incredible places. With this trip
happening so close after graduation, I was already reflecting on how quickly
college ended. I realized I had truly become alive this past year. You will not
know when your infinite happy moments will be rocked, you will not know when
your life will be changed forever. You have to do what you can to make the most
out of every second of your days. I took more
risks, traveled more places, met tons of new faces. These moments of
little infinities are something that no one will ever be able to take away
from me. In times where I'm stressed out, scared for the future of the real
world, or just down I can close my eyes and be whisked away into the fairy tale
moments of this trip. These moments are a constant reminder of how incredibly
and wholly blessed I am. I have the best support system in my family, I have
the greatest friends who would do anything for me, and I've had opportunities
to do some pretty amazing things. While this trip has been a celebration of
sorts for Claire and I for graduating college, I also see it this as moments
that will help define my future. Study abroad and travelling has opened my eyes
to something so perfect and has allowed me to decide some of what I want in
life. This is so cheesy, like literally oozing cheese from these sentences, but
I could not be more happy than I am in this moment, thousands of feet up on
this airplane. I know that there will be more big obstacles down
the road, and I am in all honesty terrified for the real-world. But this
trip has justified that the world is legitimately our oyster and we
get one chance to live it. I cannot imagine being
unhappy with anything in my life- I've taken risks and maximized my
opportunities. I've fallen in love with cities and cultures and gotten to see
people I love from my past. I got to do it all with one of my best friends,
who, somehow hasn't killed me in the past 1,382,400 seconds that we've spent
together. Literally over a million seconds of being within 10 feet of each
other. Usually people say you find out things about people in that kind of time
that you couldn't imagine. Really the only thing I found out about Claire is
that she is unreasonably scared of fish and really hates birds.
We had so much fun together and
defined the term best friends. We are well beyond the point of communicating with
words- it takes a split second of eye contact to communicate what we want
to say. We're still laughing hysterically over weird things like the
airport workers driving through the airport and saying the words "beep
beep" instead of excuse me like a normal person that we
find hilarious that most wouldn't. There is not one thing I would
change on this trip- it was fantastic. I now have a broader repertoire of
places to return to and an even longer list of places to see based on
recommendations from other travelers. I know I'll get to each and
every place- I have to. I can't imagine any other thing in my life.
Please check out this totally
radical video I made to document the trip :)
No comments:
Post a Comment