That's a Wrap.

I will start this post with an apology.  I am writing this at hour 8 of our 11-hour flight home from Rome.  Despite my best attempts, and a few sleeping pills, I haven’t slept.  So as I take a minute to reflect on this adventure that is coming to a close you’ll have to excuse the rambling that will undoubtedly follow.  I think it is important however, to capture the thoughts as they transpire as we wind this journey down to its inevitable close. 

I so needed this trip.  I have had essentially the same job since I graduated college.  For many years I loved it, and I was fairly good at it (at least as they tell me). Over the past year or so I had hit a plateau of sorts, I wasn’t learning anything new and didn’t feel challenged. Cruise control has never fit me very well.  At this point I really knew that I needed another chapter in my life, a new challenge.  I knew that starting a business was the next step, the next dream.  I also knew that before I jumped into this new enterprise I needed a full mental and physical reset.  Not just some bullshit I’ll take a few weeks off, but a true mental reset.  As I write this we have had 127 days of epic travel.  Reset button confirmed.

When I first started to write this post my plan was to, in part, list out the countries we had been and calculate the miles we had traveled.  As I continue to write I am realizing that this really doesn’t matter.  It doesn’t matter that we went to one place or a hundred.  What matters is the impact this trip had on Jamie and me.  What matters is that I got to spend 127 days with Jamie, my wife, my love, and my best friend.  What matters is that we got an opportunity to truly detach from our normal lives to experience the world.  Travel has always brought me a better perspective on the “normal” components of my life.  Travel always reminds me to slow down, take a deep breath, grab someone you love, smile and enjoy the moment.  If we forget those things then what the hell is the point. 

So as we head home, in 23H and 23J (yep, we have made the joke a bunch), with potentially zero income, we feel immensely lucky. 

Fun Fact: We get to see Banjo in two hours.  Cool.