October 24, 2015. Travel Day, from Washington DC to Rome.

The first leg of my trip will be spent on a cruise through the Mediterranean with my parents. The itinerary takes us from Rome, to Florence/Pisa, Cannes, Corsica, Naples, Istanbul, Mykonos, Kusadasi, Athens, and finally Venice.

There isn’t much to write about on the travel day from DC to Rome. The one thing I thought about on the flight over, was the gratitude I have for my life both in general, and also specifically in DC. For those of you who don’t know, I quit my job to spend approximately the next year seeing as much of the world as I can. I’m also going with no clear vision of what my future will look like afterwards. I may not return to DC, or my career. I’ve been planning this trip for quite some time, which has created a unique situation in that I’ve been anticipating some significant change or transition, while still living my “normal” life in DC. Planing this travel created a deadline or a stopping point for some things in life. As a result, I had a period of time where I knew my life was changing, but it hadn’t changed yet. I found myself getting nostalgic and appreciative of very ordinary things, since I knew that soon they’d be gone. The point is that sometimes knowing that transition is imminent allows for a special kind of appreciation of the present, that isn’t available when transition or change is unexpected. I’m just very thankful for the life that I had in DC, and very thankful for the special time that I had to savor it before I left. Thanks DC, and everyone there who was a part of my life.