Am I Glad I Took My Trip?

Before you read this post, check out the post I also made directly below this! I am doubling up, believe it or not (sorry I suck at blog!).

Recently, a couple friends (Amy and Cate to be specific) asked me a question. Am I glad that I took my trip? Well, something like that, but still, that was the general point of the question.

So...am I?

The simple answer is yes, of course I am.

I love Alaska, don't get me wrong, but there tends to be a certain amount of frustration that comes with seeing the same people that I don't want to see all of the time but do because Anchorage is tiny and doing the same things over and over. I wanted some variety. That is the spice of life, yes?

Replacing that with anything fresh would likely have resulted in an upgrade on the happy scale.

Replacing it with a dream trip around the world in which I get to see and do things I never would have otherwise while I still can enjoy it to its fullest...well, that is just the best thing ever, isn't it?

Doing what I am doing right now is something anyone in their right mind would enjoy incredibly. Sure, it has downsides. I LOVE Japan - I think it is perhaps the best place I have ever been overall - but after the earthquake the amount of travelers is down big time so it has tended to be a little on the lonely side. Australia was...well, Australia was frustrating and expensive, even with the good that came with it. Thailand was wet, dirty and filled with prostitutes (which, as I have mentioned previously, is a reason to visit for some). New Zealand was beautiful but was not the most culturally resonant place I have ever been. They are all wonderful, but just like Alaska, every place has a downside.

But the good news about their downside is it is new downside, so it is still a unique experience to me. It is still exciting. I am doing something that I will look back on for the rest of my life and think "man, I really (fill in the blank with an experience here)."

When I talked to my dad recently on Easter, he suggested to me that it seems like I have learned a lot already. I am not so sure about that - I don't feel different (said like Guy Pearce says "I don't feel drunk" in Memento), but it is hard to notice changes of that scale I think. But I would like to think I have grown in little, subtle ways that even I can't detect.

So yes, I am glad in many different ways that I took my trip. Best yet? I am glad that it is barely even half over. 2.5 more months baby! Europe is coming next!

Music of the day: Yann Tiersen's "Amelie" soundtrack

P.S. I hope to write more. I have blog ideas coming out of the wazoo, but I have a tendency to hate writing extended write-ups on my iPad. It crams my hands and is SUPER frustrating in that I make a billion typos and then it takes me a bit to correct each one. I do not like that, no I do not.