For a long time now I've been putting off writing something to wrap up this blog. It's a daunting task: to summarize, in an insightful and meaningful way, six months of incredible experiences that have had a huge impact on my life. In addition to this is the need to make it accessible and relevant to my (admittedly small) audience. So writing this thing is something I have been putting off for a while.
My conclusion is that I can't do it justice. Not really. Travelling has been the single most life changing and rewarding thing I have done to date, when considered as a whole. It has had a significant impact on my outlook on life, the opinions I hold and the way I interpret things around me. It has helped me to be better at interacting with others, and shown me some of the wonderful diversity the human race contains. It has changed the way I think about my own life. It has made me appreciative of things I once never considered.
I don't think I can effectively write something that will be meaningful or interesting to the reader. After all, I started this blog primarily as a way to let my parents know about what I had been up to, and that I was still alive. It isn't a place to get deep, and I'm not the person to go there.
So all I can say is this - if you aren't a traveler yet, go and become one. You will enjoy it.
Lastly, but far from leastly, a huge thanks to everyone I had the privilege of hanging out with along the way. Special thanks to the boys from Chile, to Lonely Rough Steve, Jack, Bretty, Eric, Amy and Dani (and the whole crew from Sucre, while I'm at it), Acacia and Sabrina, hostel Lao, and I'm sure a whole bunch more people I'm unfairly forgetting right now. My experience would not have been the same without the contributions all of you made. A huge thanks to everyone at PSF for all of the good times, you guys were beyond awesome. And especially thanks to Townie, my red bearded travel brother, who met me while I was the traveling equivalent of fresh prison ass and made sure I steered away from any (metaphorical) unpleasant shower scenes on the horizon.
And with that ... it's done.
