"Embark"/"So This is the New Year"

"Embark" - Written 12/27/08
When planning my road trip, at one point my mother asked me "Is this really the way you want to do your first visit to New York City?" When she asked this, I began to wonder what it even meant. Is there a traditional way to go to New York for the first time? Am I missing something here?

This trip, for me at least, is about escape and discovery. Not escape from my life, of course, just escape from tradition. Standards. Practicalities.

After my mom asked the question, I turned to her and asked, "Mom, have you ever been to New York City?"
"No", she said to me.
"Have you ever wanted to go?"
"Yes", she replied. I smiled.
"Yes, Mom, this is really the way I want to do my first visit to New York City. I just want to go."

I don't want to have a plan. I just want to go...

"Where I'm headed, well I don't really know, but the road is calling, and I've got to go"
-Matt Costa

"So This is the New Year" - Written 1/3/09
The trip is coming to a close, and I have seen more things in this last week and a half than most people get to see in a lifetime. I haven't journaled too much, I haven't had time. I'd like to decompress now but I don't even know how to. This trip hasn't been necessarily life changing. I haven't pondered the intricate complexities of life or anything, but I have had time for reflection and realization. For discoveries.

DISCOVERY #1: LIFE IS MEANT TO BE LIVED.
There is a world out there, and I think God made it huge for a reason. he dazzles us. He wows us. He wants us to see it. To interact with it. To discover it.

DISCOVERY #2: YOU MAKE YOUR PAST YOUR PAST.
Every day is new. And every new day is a blessing, not a garuntee. So cherish it. If you live in your past long enough, if you let your mistakes haunt you long enough, you will never escape them or learn from them. God has the sun rise and set...and rise again for a reason. Time moves, times change, and so do we. Hopefully, for the better. That's a beautiful thing, and I embrace it.

DISCOVERY #3: EVERY RELATIONSHIP YOU HAVE IS SOMETHING TO BE VALUED.
Good and bad. Christopher McCandless wrote, "You are wrong if you think joy emanates only or principally from human relationships." The tragedy of that statement is that McCandles died young and alone, starving in the Alaskan wilderness, and hours before his death he wrote a new discovery, a counterproposal to this previous claim: "HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED". I think McCandless was partially right. The joy in life is not derived from human relationships alone. but it comes from the fruit that those relationships bear. Experiences. Conversations. Memories. Lessons.

The thing I love most about this life is that living is learning. That is, if we are truly living. Life is like a puzzle that slowly reveals itself to us as we go along. Full of learning, discovery, laughter, and bonding, this has been an excellent road trip.

Most kinds of stories save the best part for last. Most stories have a hero who finds you make your past your past.
It's a brand new day, the sun is shining. It's a brand new day.
For the first time in such a long, long time...
I know I'll be OK."
-Joshua Radin