Step One!

  The phone rings with exciting news of an approaching American adventure quickly followed by the opposing offer of accompaniment on a re-routed euro-trip. Months of preparation and the day of departure is finally here. Funny how a life altering adventure begins with a simple idea soon to be solidified by the quote: Our lives are defined by opportunities; even the one's we miss.
For years I have  sat watching friends travel to worlds full of life, love and culture I have only dreamt about  with the reassurance that I am getting ahead and building a foundation for my future.  I suddenly lapsed back to a paper I had written my first semester of college in which I made the word time into an acronym: Today I'll Mean Everything.
My elementary diagram of heartfelt principle was lost to order and buried between stacks of essays I had allowed to represent a grade rather than the meaning  I  shared in attaining its passing approval.   I had wished for myself that every word and step throughout my life would be preformed with absolute conviction and certainty, that each action would be a choice and not hazy road of pre-defined gray expectancy. Now, three years later I'm practicing my own sermon.
An unexpected delay induced by the ever so reliable weather held us in Boston for a night leaving us with forty days and forty nights to be enveloped by the european way of life.  The six week endeavor to seek experience and enlightenment in a world outside my own is but six hours away. It just may head more life shaping thoughts than anything i might conjure up behind the doors of a lecture hall -- A naive shadow of myself reflects in my mind represented by the spirit of freedom and fascination for knowledge, while the wiser version I am grins by the contradicting thoughts: maybe I had more figured out than what i gave myself credit for and how lucky am I to have waited for a time where I deeply appreciate my experiences that are enabling me to embrace every step into my future with excitement. The only english word I hope to remember over my duration of travel is Perspective. For years I've been reading books about countries and culture, forming conclusions and inevitable bias's.  That pallet has been cleaned so I can simply find people with enough passion to share their appreciation and help write my story.  Shared joy is double joy. The countdown begins!