Recently I have been meditating on my desire to travel. Self-diagnosed with Wanderlust, my yearning to get out in the world and experience different cultures will not go away. As Claude Monet put it, "Every day I discover more and more beautiful things. It's enough to drive one mad. I have such a desire to do everything, my head is bursting with it." Just yesterday, as I was looking at my original blog, crossingthejordan.tumblr.com, filled with quotes, pictures, and videos that I find particularly inspiring, I discovered the video that you will find below. When I originally posted it back in early 2011, I wrote beneath it, "absolutely incredible. I know what I am doing after school..." As I begin to plan a trip around the world, I am struck by the honesty and sincerity of my first impressions of this video, and how I never could have predicted that my words may actually come true. China, Thailand, India, United Arab Emirates, Austria, Italy, Hungary, France, England, Ireland: My own "Into The Wild" adventure. While I have yet to purchase my ticket, as I am still in the final stages of planning, the itinerary has been saved, and I see it's geting closer and closer to becoming a reality.
So very often, I find myself getting caught up on things like past mistakes and self-doubt. But what I am beginning to discover is how those thoughts only have the power that we give them. Feelings are what they are. Naturally, they have to be recognized and dealt with; it would be unhealthy and unreasonable to repress them. However, just because we feel a certain way, does not mean that we have to act upon it. In fact, it is possible to act in the exact opposite manner of what our feelings are "telling" us to do. It may not be easy, but it can be done. I often doubt my ability to complete this trip, to travel alone (being the extrovert that I am), and be distant from family and friends for so long. But this trip has been a dream of mine far too long for it not to happen, and I realize how much better it would be to look back after traveling, having learned from mistakes along the way, than it would be to look back and wonder, "what if?" When asked what this trip is about, I find that it is best described as a soul-searching, missionary adventure tour, around the globe. Ghandi said, "In order to find oneself, you must first lose yourself in service of others." It is with that spirit that I hope to serve others, connect with individuals on the human level, experience different cultures around the world; seeing God's beautiful creation first hand, discovering who I am, who God is, and just how much he loves us.
What this blog is about: inspiring others to get out there, to take risks, to love, to share, to discover the beauty of human connection, to help one another along this journey, to pray, to discover God in the places you least expect him. We each have our own YOLO diaries to write, this one just happens to be mine. So get out there, travel, take chances, learn from your mistakes, and most of all, make it count.
- Jordan
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