I like to think that, if nothing else, I am someone who keeps to their promises. At least the ones that matter. I loathe going back on what I say I will do. But sometimes you have to face up to the reality that nothing is ever what you imagine it will be. Four months ago (when I made these plans), two weeks seemed like plenty of time. I plotted all the points on my calendar, connected up the dots and came up with what seemed to be a completely feasible plan of action. One: quit my job. Two: move my stuff back to California. Three: depart for the first stop on a six-month tour of Latin America. Sounds rational, right?
But in less than a fraction of second of the universal clock, it was three weeks and counting. And nothing was/is done, and suddenly the twenty-four hours that had looked so long from far away weren't even enough to blink sleep out of my eyes. And panic set in, and I'm not ready! was realized, followed by blind denial and unacceptance. So drastic measures were taken, resulting in a month more breathing room *phhhew* and one more week of New York Summer.
This is the plan thus far: leave New York at the end of June, after packing up my life and shipping it home to Cali; chill in Redwood City for a month with my parents, and dog and cat while the 'rents go on a European adventure; depart for Guatemala on August 5th; Spanish school/Mayan ruins/scuba diving in Central America; fly to Ecuador in September for a month of marine conservation volunteering; make my way down the west coast of South America through Peru, Bolivia, Chile, then over to Argentina; back to the US just in time for Christmas. The idea is to hopefully have lots of fun, crazy adventures, work hard for a bit, relax for a while, become bilingual, meet good people, take some pretty pictures, and pick up the pieces of myself along the way.
On a side note: Is this the theory of relativity in practice? I don't know, because I'm still struggling to wrap my head around that whole thing. Big ideas for a dormant brain.
