The Opportunity Of A Lifetime

“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

I was going to put a lot of different travel quotes and then I came across that one and felt all the others were irrelevant. Nothing can top that one, the truth behind it.

Why am I going on about this? This semester I am going on the journey of a lifetime. Semester at Sea. 106 days on a ship. I've never been on a ship before... 13 different countries. I've never been out of country before... Am I scared? A little, but who wouldn't be? Am I excited? There's not words to cover it.

Yes, I will be taking classes. Yes, I have a "job" while I'm on the ship. No, I don't have TV or Internet and will sadly be missing the Super Bowl this year. But have I mentioned I will be getting to travel 13 different countries? How many people can say they've done that? How many people can say they've trekked through the jungles of Vietnam, the mountains of India? How many people can say they've stayed in the home of a family from rural South Africa and impoverished Ghana? How many people can say they've talked for hours with farmers just trying to survive and camped outside around a bonfire in the middle of the Asian continent? By the time I get back I'll have experienced almost every type of food imaginable, rode an elephant, a camel, and a rickshaw, and have gotten to see a Wonder of the World in Myanmar/Burma- Shooting an Elephant, anyone? I will have seen the devastation of Hiroshima while also learning about the war that caused it.

I will have sailed across 3 oceans, 6 seas, 1 bay, and 1 gulf. And that's just what I can see on Google Maps. Most importantly, I will have met so many people. I will have gained a new family of about 1,000 students, teachers, staff, and crew. I will establish friends in different countries. Who knows? I might even make a lasting difference in a country or more likely, in at least one person's life. The sea is the limit.