I'm leaving, on a jet plane.

I don't know if I'll be back again.

Certainly, someone like me will be returning, but the 48 days that separate me from that future version of myself will hopefully mold and shape me in new and interesting ways.

It has been too long since I have traveled.

When I was young, my family owned a business that kept me, my sister (+3 years) and my mother on the road for most of the summer months. We would drive for 9+ hours a day, 3 or 4 days a week. We would arrive in a city on a Thursday afternoon, set up for a convention, man the convention Friday, Saturday, and maybe Sunday afternoon, then pack everything up and hit the road again. We would do this in such a way that we traveled in circuits around the United States. The west coast loop, the northwest loop, etc. We would be on the road for 6 weeks at a time, or more. When we returned home, we'd do laundry and decompress for a handful of days, then hit the road again for another circuit.

It wasn't an easy life, but it taught me a lot about traveling. How to read in the car. How to read aloud to people. How to be sensitive to the needs of your traveling companions. How to navigate (both by map and by instinct). How to say "That was stupid of me. I'm sorry." How to be comfortable away from home.

I have learned more in my travels than I could have learned in a lifetime of sitting still. It was a blessing and a curse to be that mobile at that age.

I hope to re-learn what has made me who I am while abroad this month. It shall be a good experience for me.

I hope.