Reminiscing, Risks, and No Regrets

            I was recently looking at the blog I kept last summer when I worked up in Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, reminiscing about the best summer I’ve had so far. It was a summer of hiking, camping, kayaking, cliff jumping, and unforgettable friendships. As it turns out, it was one year ago today that I left San Antonio with my dad, beginning our road trip from Texas to Wyoming. I remember the huge sense of excitement, and small sense of sadness, as the city I’ve grown up in slowly sank in the rearview mirror. I knew that a crazy adventure was beginning, and I couldn’t have been more right. Looking at that blog, I also learned that, interestingly enough, May fourteenth of last year was my first night in the employee dorms at Jackson Lake Lodge, where I spent the summer working. This year, May fourteenth will be my first night in South Africa. Weird.

            It’s now a matter of only a few short days until I board a fifteen-hour flight across the Atlantic Ocean to Johannesburg. Only a few days until I hug my family goodbye. Only a few days until I leave the only country I’ve ever known, and arrive in another country, another continent, another hemisphere. Life can be quite an adventure if you make it one. Near the end of May, my parents’ three children will be on three different continents. A few years ago, I don’t think we would’ve guessed that, of the three of us, I’d actually be the farthest from home.

            Last summer gave me the experience of being away from my friends and family at home for an extended period of time. This summer, I’m using that experience to, cliché as it sounds, expand my horizons. Yes, I’d probably feel safer if I boarded that plane with a friend or family member by my side, but the riskiness of the trip is also part of the fun! It’s the part that’ll get my blood pumping, my heart pounding, and adrenaline rushing through my veins. That is exactly why, despite so many people calling me crazy, I’m more than happy to go on this adventure by myself. A lot of my friends know me as being a daredevil, and I accept that title quite proudly. I never want to look back over my life and see things that I wish I had done, but didn’t. The biggest regrets in life are the chances that you don’t take, because you’ll never really know what would’ve happened if you had chosen otherwise. I took a chance by spending last summer in a state I’d never been to, far away from my friends and family, and it was one of the best decisions of my life. This year I’m taking an even bigger chance by going on this adventure to Africa, and I know that if I were to let this chance go by without seizing it, I’d regret it for a long time to come.

            I guess that’s all for this post. I didn’t really mean to turn this into some kind of pep talk, but looking back over what I’ve written, that’s kind of what it sounds like. Oh well. See you in five days, Africa. This post’s food for thought: “Go to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Build your wings on the way down.”- T.K. Thorne