An old friend, a new travel companion

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So it appears that I have found a travel companion. While many have expressed interest, one seems to be serious. No plans have been set yet, and while our planning will be done remotely as we live about 3000 miles apart, I trust things will work out.

It's funny the way people come in and out of your life. But I do believe it is not without purpose. This person is someone I connected with a few years ago when we did Crew together at the College of Charleston. We instantly became friends, seemingly kindred spirits that could talk for hours and never finish our conversation. Chess games, beers, or sometimes nothing at all would bring us together to discourse life, love and politics. But, as life happens, time and circumstance drifted us apart.

So when Sean Facebook messaged me a few months ago, I was nothing short of thrilled to hear from him. An old friend reemerging, something I have had the pleasure of experiencing more than once this year. We got to talking, catching up, and of course our conversation turned to one of our many shared interests, travel. I told him of my plan and lack of travel companion, he immediately jumped on board.

I have found that often, the best travel buddies are the unexpected ones. The first time I went to Costa Rica it was with a girl I barely knew, later we became great friends. When I traveled to Kenya it was with a group of 10 other students that I had met not 3 months earlier, one of them later became my roommate and a great friend. Now I am about to embark on a journey to the far East with a friend who has drifted in and out of my life unpredictably for the last 3 years. Something in my gut tells me this is the right person to travel with.

My heart is open, my bags are packed (well, not quite yet but they will be), and I am ready to take a life-changing trip with someone I am just reacquainting myself with. Life is delightfully random, and often enough, you just have to role with it.

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