So after three and a half months, my journey has come to an end. This is my final post to a blog that has been a joy for me, and I hope some of you as well.
This trip has been a unique life, when you start to measure time by country, "that was way back in Ghana" or "I think it is after Japan," you know what you have been doing is epic. When the crazy and the once in a life time become everyday, you know you are part of something special. We have learned to take risks, calculate rewards, and make the best decisions. We have learned more than we know we have and the best part is that we have learned how much more we have to learn. At every turn we had the opportunity to learn and grow. We tried to live up to Mark Twain's idea that "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." We most certainly explored, dreamed, and discovered. We have seen things that few people can say they have witnessed, but though we have seen many things that have shocked and surprised us, it has not changed our love of the world. Though we may not be phased we are still impressed.
I have spent a lot of time thinking on my voyage, a lot of time pondering about what it all means. In the end it keeps on coming back to the fact that with great opportunity comes great responsibility. As William Butler Yeats put it, "in dreams begin responsibilities," and this has certainly been a dream. A dream that I will never forget. The time that I have spent aboard the MV Explorer has been a highlight of my ever evolving journey through life. That is the part that is so hard now that it is over, as one of the people in my class put it, "how do we make this the beginning and not a pinnacle of our lives." That's a hard question to answer. We have traveled the world, climbed mountains, swam with sharks, repelled off cliffs, prayed with monks and kicked soccer balls with kids in innumerable streets. We have learned from physicists and poets, anthropologists and biologists, and most importantly we have learned from experience. So how do we make this a beginning? That's a hard question to answer. We have been to three wonders of the world, crossed three major oceans, four continents, and a total of nearly 30,000 miles, how do we make this the beginning? That's a hard question to answer, and in the end I think it is about responsibility. We have done these things, we have connected the world, in ways that few can say they have had the privilege to do, and now we need to do something with that. We have had this dream, and seen what needs to happen in the world, and now we need to wake up, and actively use our insights to help others. I can assure each of you that this has been the beginning for me, it has given me new perspectives and new ideals. I have a responsibility and I will not ignore it. I have tried to make each moment of this voyage count, I have tried to learn all I can and absorb everything around me. I would like to think that I have been successful at that, but only time will tell, so I will let you know in a few years.
I would be remiss if I failed to mention the extreme love, gratitude, and respect I have for my friends that were on the ship. What I have learned has been because of them, they helped me through everything, be it confusion over languages, shock at starvation, or stress from rain, I would not have been able to do it without them. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you, it has been an honor to share this experience with each of you.
To everyone who reads this, I can only hope that my words have been able to explain even a tenth of what I have learned. Books and movies can take you so far, but it is not until you experience the world that you get the visceral response to what it is you think you understand. I hope that I have been able to vicariously provide even a small amount of that deeper understanding, and perhaps entertain you at the same time. Thank you for reading along, and thank you for your many comments. It is sad that it is over, I will miss the time and my teachers and friends, so deeply that it can only be felt by the heart, and any attempt to explain it would be fruitless. This earth is our only home, so let us take care of it, and let us take every moment that we are blessed to be on this beautiful home and make it count, for we are not here long, and every second is a precious experience. I know that I will always be sad the trip ended, but I am hopeful for the great things that it has set in motion, and as Dr. Seuss said "don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened." So for the last time, take care, and make it count.
