ramping up

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when i was 20, i took my first overseas trip ever. to Vietnam. trial by fire. i had just finished a hellish semester with 4 brutal finals, working at the university loading dock, and was now in the market for a backpack and traveling clothes. i gave myself all of a night to pack. as in, an overnight, when i should have been sleeping. perhaps you can relate to this, fellow travelers and students of life.

i'm making a very conscious decision here not to tell you what i packed on that maiden voyage. it's embarrassing, and involved lots of cotton and pretty much every bad packing decision ever made.

4 weeks later, my pack was emptied and searched at LAX, my scruffy smelly bewildered self standing by helplessly as new immigrants, hippie couples with newly adopted babies, and youth groups walked happily unobstructed past me into International Arrivals. the immigration official had to excuse himself to retrieve his "high duty" gloves to inspect what was left of my personal effects. it was that bad.

now, i am 34, and am about to take another trip overseas. i've been blessed enough to lose count over what number this is. it strikes me in some ways how little my life has changed. i'm working, wrapping up yet another semester of study (this makes my 19th semester of post-high school study...that number shakes me violently), preparing for a final even as i prepare for this trip. unlike that first adventure all those years ago, my packing is down to a science, and Scandinavia is more of a retreat and calm adventure than some of my previous jaunts (ref: Vietnam).

every so often, the blood begins to stir, and restlessness creeps into the bones. the passport calls out in the midnight hours (though that could be the new microchip embedded in the back cover...). once that happens, you know you don't have long. if a guide book is not purchased, plane tickets bought (at least one-way), and itineraries sketched out on Excel (don't say it), and a trip is made imminent, bad things happen. friends are neglected, work becomes a chore, and generally everyone suffers.

so as you see, i'm doing my civic and honourable duty by getting the hell out of here for a while. stay tuned.

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