A lot of People will Know where I am going and I'll have a Phone

This was a great weekend.


In my last weekend home before I sail this summer, I went up to see my best friends at the state college about forty five minuets away. Needless to say, it was a very "college experience and I had more fun that weekend than the three before it. Nothing beats hangout out with your true friends and seeing the people make make home so great.

You see, I've been reading a lot lately. The last two book I read, Paper Towns by John Green and Into the Wild by John Krakauer, deal extensively with the themes of adventure and leaving. These two things are very prevalent in my life, especially now that I am on the precipice of a salty summer. My adventure will not be akin of Margo Roth Spiegleman or Chris McCandless; a lot of people will know where I am going and I'll have a phone.

These books have made me think about what I am undertaking though. This adventure will afford me experiences that I couldn't get any other way. Some people may make jokes about how 'crunchy' this picture is I am painting, and I honestly don't care. I'm not doing this for anyone else, I don't really need to defend my choices to people (or this choice at least). I want urgently the freedom of choice and the responsibility to be beholden to myself, meanwhile I value the dear friendships I've made.

I guess this is where the selfish part of the whole adventurism-lifestyle come into play. In order to feel the freedom of the Alaskan countryside or miles of open blacktop with nothing but a backpack and a crosshatch notebook, I need to (simply put) leave. Now, this may sound simple, but when you have great friends and family at home, some of whom you haven't laid eyes on in more than ten months, it's hard to put it on hiatus for even longer and not feel like an ass.This is the price of adventure; I am exchanging a summer for an experience that few people get to have. I committed to this trip long ago, and I will honor my word to myself. I owe it to all those that aided me in wandering into this place, and now that I am here I need to do what it right.

Now, to all my friends I will not see until August third, have a great freakin' summer. You guys have made my first year of college so great and I really owe it to you for helping me get through some pretty crappy times (the month of yelling/the ten days of poop). Just the thought of those late night Smash/Mario Cart sessions made me smile. I'm sure I will be thinking of those nights during some of those really shitty stormy nights that I spend heaving the whatever-the-hell-is-in-my-stomach into a seawater toilet bowl that smells like stale pee and testosterone.

Just to clarify, I typed that last sentence with a smile on my face, because Chris McCandless would say that's a needed experience of the shipboard life, and Margo Roth Spiegleman would say that I would need to clean myself up and take a damn shower (right?).

I can't wait!

AF

P.S. Canada is still a wicked interesting Country. I dig talking to her.