On a Journey...

As I ponder how to begin this blog, I keep thinking about one of my favorite poems, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost, and I think about what it means in my life right now.  After nine years in a great profession, I’ve decided to take a breather and embark on a personal adventure or journey, if you will.  I will be taking the next year off to travel and experience as much out of life as I can.  Those who know me personally know my love of traveling and know the fortune I’ve been afforded when  it comes to seeing the world.  The desire to see and experience new different and exciting cultures was instilled in me at a young age by my parents, who to this day, also can’t seem to stay put for too long before heading out to new places!  To have already visited 6 of the 7 continents and been to over 50 countries at this point in my life is a gift I am thankful for every day. But no matter how much I see, I find I want more!  I guess when you get bit by the traveling bug, you REALLY get bit!  

So back to the real reason why I decided to start this blog.  I wanted to create a place to record my adventures, a place where family and friends can keep up to date with my doings and whereabouts, a place where I can hopefully share with others the joy traveling gives me.  So I will leave you today with Frost’s poem, a reminder to not be afraid to try new things, be adventurous, and venture into the unknown...

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - 

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken"