The Beginning of a Journey

In 8th grade, the students in my middle school English class were required to write a page-long entry into our journals about what we thought high school would be like. We were to describe our projected first year as vividly as possible: who we pictured as our friends, where we thought we'd hang out, how we'd spend our time. At the end, we turned in our papers with the promise that we'd receive them in the mail after our freshman year of high school. Sure enough, a letter addressed in my handwriting came a few days after school got the following year. Many of my high school predictions were right, some were wrong, and some were totally ridiculous.

These past few weeks have held a lot of the same nervousness and excitement that comes along with packing up and heading to a new school. As I sit here late at night a few hours before I leave, exhausted by the last few days packed with pre-trip errands, my mind keeps wandering to all of the unknowns. Will I make friends? Will I get lonely? Sick? What if my backpack gets stolen before I even leave Denver? Do I really want to wear these same three shirts for a year?

In the end, I have to do the same thing that I did on my first day of high school: try to forget about all of the nervousness and embrace the weird feeling of being completely out of my element. Soon enough, I'll get into the swing of things and being in a new city every few days will feel completely normal. I really hope that you'll join me on my adventure around the world by checking out all of the stories, photos, and video that I'll post on this travelogue. I'll do my best to keep it as lively as I can.

The first leg of my trip takes me to San Francisco by train where I'll visit family and explore the city before heading to Shanghai to visit my brother Bill and sister-in-law Vivien. Wish me luck, and I'll see you all in a year. -- Ryan!