A Loss

I have suffered a loss today. One that I did not know I could suffer. I lost someone I knew to a fatal accident, someone who, initially, had hurt me. Even when that someone reached out to make amends, my hurt kept me from welcoming the change. I feel foolish. That person is no longer with us and I am stuck with my last thoughts and words that were borne out of hurt. I will forever be plagued by my guilt over this. I realize this is meant to be a travel blog and I can say that I believe this occurrence has everything to do with my travels. It opens my eyes and brings me back to the reality of my future endeavors. Accidents can happen. For reasons larger than each individual, events occur. With this in mind, I am reminded, through tragedy, that it is of the utmost importance for me to try my hardest to make the most of the relationships I have now. So, when I travel, I know that if anything should happen to me or those I love, that I tried my hardest and did the best I could. In this particular case, I did not. I hope and pray that nothing will happen while I am gone, either to me or anyone else I know. But for now, my thoughts and prayers go out to Jeremy's family and I hope they can find some peace.

We're On Our Way...

Sixty days to go and things are starting to come together. I finished my closed water scuba training! Just four more open water dives to do and I will officially be certified. My first dive after my certification will be, yes that's right, in a cage looking at Great White sharks. I'm nervous just thinking about it. Just some final planning, some shots to get and eventually the stress of packing.Exactly two months and we'll be on our way! Can this really be happening?

Am I crazy?

I can only hope that this huge undertaking will help decrease the travel bug that resides within me. If not, then I'm in big trouble. I don't know how many times I could go through this and I still have 4 months until we leave!! Christina happens to be one of the best travel buddies I could ask for and what's better is that we've been friends for over 10 years! The goal as of right now is to hit 4 different continents (possibly 5 if we snag a layover in Europe somewhere) over a 5 1/2 month period. It may sound quick to some but for us it's perfect. Our tentative/ideal itinerary is as follows: Peru, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Kenya, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand and Tahiti.
Our goal: to experience as much of the culture of each individual state while finding a balance between what it is traditionally touristy and what is not.
I hope that the planning and actual trip documentation will provide not only some words of wisdom, usually discovered through baptism by fire, or just plain funny stories. I tend to have stories to tell about almost everything in my life, so there should be some comic relief along the way. Stay tuned and any comments or suggestions would be well received!