What's up world? How's everyone doing tonight? Good? Good. Well I've been studying my ass off all day and that's a trend that's certain to continue over the next few days as we head into finals week. But soon finals will be over and the best summer I have yet lived will begin. For those of you not keeping track, in just 8 days from now I'll be in the beautiful city of Miami shortly followed by Rio de Janeiro. This summer's going to be intense. It's the most expensive, most dangerous, most traveled, and all around most intense summer many people will ever experience. Hopefully I make it out alive.
All of our trips are booked. All but one or two hotels are reserved. We've chosen our seats on every single flight we'll be on, all 16 of them. Everything is in check for this summer to be amazing, and it blows my mind that it's only a week away.
Last night I did some calculations. We will be sitting in airports (during layovers, this doesn't include time in our arrival/departure airport) for 28 hours this summer. We will happily be seated over the wing for a grand total of 77 hours. We'll hit three continents, five countries, and 11 cities. We will travel more over the next three months than most of the world's population will ever do in their life. It's literally one flight, city, and trip after another until August 6th.
And that's how it should be. I'm finally starting to live the life I've dreamed of when I was younger. There are countless posts in this blog that talk about the endless list of locations I wish I could jump between on a daily basis, and now I'm slowly starting to making it real.
I spent quite a bit of time reading this evening. You're probably aware that reading isn't one of my strong points in life, and I absolutely hate fiction (it's fucking made up, why would I want to read something that didn't happen?) but I still enjoy it. Instead of wasting my time reading some old wive's tale that, if it's any good, will end up in a movie that I can knock out in two hours, I prefer reading science articles and research papers and spend the time learning something. I stumbled upon a goldmine when I found a website that has 100 of the most interesting Wikipedia articles. Naturally, I read them all. Almost every single one is so compelling (and true!) that I couldn't help but mutter "wow" under my breath.
One of my favorites, one that really ignited my imagination, was about the Poles of Inaccessibility. In case you're too damn lazy to read it even after I've graciously hyperlinked it right fucking there, the poles of inaccessibility are location on Earth which are considered the most remote and hardest to get to. Many are in the oceans, far far away from the nearest speck of land. Obviously there's one at the North Pole and one at the South, and others are really really far inland marking the farthest point from the sea. You can probably figure out where this is going...
The second I figured out what the poles of inaccessibility were, I couldn't ignore the craving to go. It's a feeling that surfaces very frequently in my life. Whether it's reading a Wikipedia article like tonight, noticing a beautiful landscape on a desktop background, watching National Geographic, or simply hearing about a new place, I almost always end up challenging myself to go out and find it. It's easy to describe, it's a craving to go. The same way one would crave junk food, vices, or knowledge, I almost always have an uncontrollable desire to go out as far as I can in search of whatever I can find. It's the reason I'll be in the cabin of an airliner for 77 hours this summer.
The idea of a single pinpoint on the world being the furthest from home and hardest to reach makes me wish I could hop on a boat with my crew and start paddling directly towards it. Imagine the experiences I'd log along the way! Battling storms and navigating around continents! And when we finally arrive I picture it being a surreal encounter knowing with full consciousness and reality that it is literally impossible to travel any further away. It would be equally satisfying, depressing, and exhilarating; that which so few individuals, past and present, will ever assimilate.
In the Wikipedia entry, the last line correctly predicts my excitement: "Subject to varying definitions, it is of interest mostly to explorers." I then read the article on Exploration. Exploration is such a fascinating endeavor. I honestly wish I were born several centuries earlier so there would still be pieces of the globe for me to find before anyone else. Imagine leaving home on a wooden ship with the intention of ending up somewhere that to everyone's knowledge does not exist. I really envy anyone who's seized the opportunity to do that.
Think about it. If wherever you end up is not currently on your map, it's yours. You are the first person, in 4.5 BILLION years, to walk along the sands of those shores. Everything you touch, everything you see, for hundreds of miles, would be touched and seen by only you. I can't even begin to fathom what that must be like.
But unfortunately the chances of me ever becoming an explorer and being the first person to set foot somewhere are seemingly slim. Who knows, though. It could happen. Regardless, I'm going to explore as much of the world as I possibly can despite not being the first. The places I hope to find in my life are still going to be unknown to close to 100% of everyone in the world, and I suppose that's a fair compromise.
Well I'm done blogging tonight. I hope you enjoyed reading a little more about what makes me tick. Until next time...
