Where to start…
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to make this trip more than just a massive hemorrhaging of money, a year’s worth of mileage on my truck in a month’s time, and the potential for failures of epic proportions.
I want this trip to mean something. I want to leave pieces of myself as I go, thoughts, memories, and the experiences of traveling. I want to break out of my shell and meet many new people from all kinds of different backgrounds and walks of life and share my story in hopes that they will share theirs also. In the end I hope to take as much with me as I intend to leave along the way. I hope to leave the old me behind so the new me can move forward. Life after this trip will be all about changes, changes in scenery, changes in career, and personal changes.
I’ve often thought, the most true experiences in life come from truly experiencing life, and that’s what I hope to do.
On this trip I will pass through some of the richest areas in the country, as well as some of the poorest, most desolate and dying areas. Each person I meet will have a story to share – good or bad. Listening and sharing in those experiences is what will set me apart from the rest of the “tourists” that pass through daily. Abandoning a naturally selfish nature and opening up to new experiences, new people, and new stories. Listening. Learning. Caring.
The easiest way to share my own story and my life is to pass along my blog as I go. Obviously the best method of doing so requires talking to the people I meet along the way - the waiters/waitresses, hotel clerks, gas station attendants, and anyone else who I may cross paths with. The ultimate goals: making friends, creating (hopefully) lasting ties, and gathering/sharing knowledge as I go. Knowledge that I can use and pass along for the rest of my life to come.
I’ve devised a seemingly easy way to accomplish this task. Cards.
By handing out cards, like the one above, with my blog address on it, the people I meet along the way can follow my trip, my thoughts, and my photos as I go. I don’t need something flashy, just something simple to trigger their memory so they won’t forget me when I’m gone. In the end, that’s what life is really all about – being remembered, living on, even after death, until the last person has forgotten you.
“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” – Mark Jenkins
