Time, it's the most precious thing about this place. I'm not even sure where it goes, if it gets stored or invested, gaining 1.7% interest in a golden Swedish vault. I've accepted that I'll never see it again, for in exchange for my time, I receive a continual supply of stories and lessons, experiences and memories. Spend time wisely, purchase a year of life in Germany, invest in a weekends worth of losing direction and finding ones self in Paris, splurge and celebrate your 23rd birthday with strangers in London, put a down payment on Christmas in Scotland, and donate the rest of 2008 in an Irish New Years celebration. Time is our metaphorical lemon, and I have decided to get drunk off of lemonade wherever I want.
I leave in exactly 5.5 days for a place I have never been. Five nights in England to do things I have never done. It'll be the first time I travel somewhere where nobody is expecting me. I am not with the YMCA or with a family or meeting friends; it will be just me and my willingness to discover a place.
These five days with England will be followed by one week in Scotland. Here lives Ben, someone I haven't seen since I was 19 and living in Portland, Oregon. After all this time, I'm still finding reasons to be grateful to have stayed in touch. Now, in a land far away, I have an old friend to celebrate Christmas with.
From there I move on to Ireland to meet up with a boy who was just a stranger one week ago. Devlin, my fourth friend in Germany, completely altered my winter plans by inviting me to spend New Years with him in Dublin. I'll have six days in Ireland before returning to Germany; exhausted, overstimulated and whole.
Perhaps there is no better recipe to make lemonade than the one that creates itself within us. Happy holidays.
No comments:
Post a Comment