A Note About Intentions

While walking home from school, I was thinking a bit about my title for this blog. It has a lot to do with the intentions I have for this phase of my life.

From July 2003 until July 2007, from age 20 to 24, from when I first left for New Zealand up until my intended return from Nicaragua, I will have spent a significant period of time abroad. Here´s the breakdown:

New Zealand -- 5 months
Ghana -- 3.5 months
India -- 14.5 months
Nicaragua -- 6 months
(Add in family trips during that time to South Africa and Prague/Budapest -- 1 month total)

Out of the 48 months from those 4 years, I will have spent 30 months living abroad. That´s 62.5% of the time abroad. When I think about that statistic, I can´t help but grin.

I remember there was one day during my summer in Israel where I felt I had a glimpse of what lay before me. I was 17 years old. We were hiking in the Negev. When we reached the topof a cliff, I sat down alone on a ledge, a great valley stretched out in front of me. I was filled just then with all the passionate enthusiasm of youth. I made up my mind that it was imperative thatin I go out and see something of the world. I´ve been very privileged to have the opportunities to do so with so much support.

But anyone who has lived alone in a foreign country knows that such an endeavor is not usuallywhat one would call ¨fun.¨ One could describe it more aptly as challenging, heart-rendering, inspiring, exhausting, or hysterical. I rarely find myself passing my time in the same way I´d choose to in the States. And that´s kinda the point. I´m trying somehow to open myself up to the world and understand a bit more of what´s around me while I have the chance to do so.