Tomorrow, Only a Day Away

Tomorrow morning I leave behind friends, family, my niece I love more than anything, my computer, my bed, my whole comfortable little world all for the sake of an adventure. Am I ready? ...No, probably not. But I doubt I'll ever feel fully ready. At some point you just have to jump in with both feet. My mother asked me the other day why I'm doing this, because she really didn't understand. I told her if she didn't get it, she probably wasn't going to no matter how hard I tried to explain. It's the desire for adventure and adversity, to get out of my comfort zone, to get out of my mundane bubble and realize there's a whole world outside it, to set a challenge for myself and then rise to meet it, to endeavor to become better than I am. There are some people, like myself, who think that way and want that kind of experience. While other people, like my mother and many others I know, strive to make their world ever safer and more comfortable, and simply can't imagine why someone would want to do something reckless, difficult, or stupid just for the sake of it. I don't think I could ever explain it adequately to them. It's just...something I feel compelled to do. Maybe after this I'll shake it out of my system. Maybe after a week it will go so badly that it'll all be drained out of me then. Maybe I'll finish this trip and realize I just want more in the future. I honestly can't say. But I'm eager to find out.

Tomorrow I bike to Stromsburg, same as I did last week. It's just that this time, I don't come back the next day. I just keep right on going west. Tomorrow looms. I best be off to sleep.

Oh, by the way, this is my niece. Who I love more than anything or anyone. She told me today that she wanted to come with me. I'm going to miss her immensely. Whenever things get rough out there, it's moments and images like this one that I'm going to think about to make me smile. I'm really hoping that I'll be able to video chat with her now and again, and that she won't forget about me.