Today is the last day I’ll wake up in the sticky-sweet embrace of this journey. This life changing adventure. This around the friggin’ world trip. Today. And tomorrow I will return to my old lover, San Francisco. I wonder if he’ll look different, if his scent has changed, if I’ll view him in a new light.
It’s hard not to think back to day one, sitting in the airport lobby, wondering if I could really do it alone. If I’d spent my entire savings on the right thing. (That would be a resounding YES.)
But how have I only traveled for half a year? In travel years it must be seven. Each day and place has been a gift. Even the days that brought loneliness, sickness and fear. Those moments had beautiful lessons, too.
I suppose the journey doesn’t stop here in Thailand. Or once I return to the States. Or even after I find myself back inside the walls of a cubical.
All the skills, connections and love will travel back with me. They’ll be right there, baby-cakes, evolving with me.
With each sunrise I’ll remember how that same sun greeted me in the wee morning party hours in Argentina. The same rays that warmed the earth outside my tent in Africa. The same light that beat beads of sweat down my back in India. And the same setting sun that cast palm-shaped shadows on my bungalow in Thailand.
And with each new day, I’ll know - that the person I am - is better because of this trip.
"And you? When will you begin that long journey into yourself?" - Rumi
