Wanderlust...

To travel is the key. To see the world through different eyes, to gain abstract perspectives, and incorporate new ideas into new alliances. So, you all know how I have spent the last 5 years abroad - well, okay, abroad North America - but have I ever told you about my fleet-footed friends? Like my brother Josh-Beaner-Batsch, the dude from California that I met once, one night like 3 years ago in Whistler. We hung out for the night, partied like wild mountain men should, made plans to go ride the next morning, and I have never seen him since. Beaner has lived in Utah since, some islands surrounding Washington, up into Canada into Victoria, spent some time in South America, and is now in Alaska somewhere...saving dinero to get ready to leave again. Cheers amigo, and may we soon meet again. I miss you homes.

Then there is my friend Jared, who I met while I was living in Tofino two summers ago. I was working in a campground - don't ask and I won't tell - and he was up visiting from Southern California, from somewhere around Tahoe I think. Jared is a soft-spoken man with a heart of gold, and a steel trap of a mind. Anyway, we hung out for a couple of days, busted some mad knowledge on each other, and then he too was gone. I have not seen him since, but from his last email, he is somewhere in Thailand right now, living the good life and pestering the natives I hope. Be good my man, and rest assured you are in this man's thoughts.

I also have this "friend" Jeralynn. I say "friend" because once upon a time we were "friends" with fringe benefits, and god, they were great benefits, let me tell you. I met her on my stint on Vancouver Island, and we hung out for a month or so, until our time together ran dry. I remember her telling me that she had so much to see, so many things to explore, and she is making good on those words. While I was living in Whistler last year, she emailed me from Korea, to tell me she was teaching Engish to some Korean children and adults. We even talked on the phone for a few moments and updated each other on our lives...or maybe it was just to hear each other's voice again. You know how it is when you are on the road...sometimes you just need to hear a friendly tone. She emailed me today saying she is headed back to South Korea to visit, then is off to New Zealand for 5 to 6 months, and then she is booking it to South East Korea for another stint...so she will be gone for a year or so, and I say stay for longer. Why not right? Do it now while you still have the chance, Jer, and may you never look back over your shoulder, or find yourself thinking of a certain boy from Newfoundland. I find myself wondering how you are now and then, and even some more time thinking about that callipygian of yours. Keep stretching the boundaries of thought and understand your internal through the outside workings of your external.

Last, but most definitely not least, we have Brasil. You see, I have never met one the likes of her. She has seen many things, and in the last two months alone has visited the Bahamas and even now as we speak, is in Cuba. I am hoping she brings me some cigars back and more so, I am hoping she brings a shirt of Ernesto hisself for me. I think she has plans for New York this summer, and I am looking forward to hanging out with her on my home turf - The Rock aka Newfoundland...the last hidden, treacherous and most spectacular place on earth. Then, in the upcoming fall, she heads out on a trip that all travellers would lust over - a sailing trip around the world to raise awareness on the eroding coral reefs, and maybe do a little bit of surfing somewhere in between. I think of her the most of all, and only wish she could see what I already know. But only time will tell on that, and I can only hope she remembers our pact when I show up on her doorstep in Brasil.

Then there is me...like I said, I plan on returning home for the first time in over a decade, to see the place my heart so desperately longs to see. Then, after school is done, I will head down to California, and use it as my launching pad to leave this continent behind. I will spend the next proceeding 6 years in three different cities, with a two year stint in each. Imagine what I can write about hey? It gives me shivers everytime I think about it...like the night I traced a friend's ocean voyage on a wall map, and then turned around to see her staring at me, unable to breathe. Reality is not what we think it is, and it is only made for the non-believers, which is something me and my brethren our most definitely not. Head up, shoulders straight...now march.

Hold on McGinty. Hold on.

"Two roads diverged in a wood and I -- I took the one less travelled by, and that has made all the difference."
- Robert Frost