I had one of those RTW moments the other day: I was sitting on an airplane when all of a sudden I had this little panic-stricken moment– what day is it? where am I going? am I on the right plane? I seriously had to think hard about that, but then realized, it’s May 3rd, yes, even though I’m on a plane to Denver, of course I am on the right plane because I’m catching a connecting flight to Seattle. Phew. My heart can stop racing now.
But let me back up a bit…
I spent the last couple weeks of April back in Minnesota, visiting my mom and my brother (and once again being a guinea pig for science in order to buy a much-needed lens for my camera). The guy at the backpack repair shop asked me an interesting question, “What’s it like to have your home state be a stop on your RTW trip?” It definitely didn’t feel like I was coming home because I was still in travel mode. It felt just like what it was– a stop, but a pretty familiar one, which afforded me the opportunity to exit travel mode for a moment or two.
It gave me the chance to off-load some of that awful unneeded weight in my backpack as well as the chance to reflect on the first part of the trip and what I hope for in the next. I feel like I’ve lived a great deal of life in the last couple months and yet the greater portion of my trip still lies ahead. In a way, just as that blue speckled curtain divides economy from first class, I feel these last couple weeks served as a dividing point. This next half of the trip will be different than the first half. I want it to be different. What exactly that means, I’m still figuring out.
As humans, we tend to go through life thinking we are the central character in our own story. We live life rather selfishly on the whole. Somehow, I’d like to find a way to get my eyes off myself and join the larger story, to see others as more important than myself, and to make this count for something more than just a trot around the globe. A true first class experience, none of those plastic throw-away cups, but real glass ones that last and last.
I have this unexplainable sense of anticipation that something remarkable is about to happen.
P.S. As of May 3rd, I’m officially a university grad. Too bad the paperwork took a year to be pushed to the right desk. Too bad I missed graduation by mere hours because I had to catch a flight. But, at least now I have that multi-thousand dollar piece of paper that says I’m supposed to know something about interpreting and psychology. :)