has changed in the past three months: but in a glaring, positive light. Sure, I'm still having those post-graduation freak outs every once in a while. However I'm more optimistic and enthralled with the options that lie ahead of me than I ever have been.
For the sake of playing catch-up I will just say this: the last months of college and time spent with my closest friends was incredible and something that I will always cherish. Although we may have to go our separate ways to begin our new lives, I know these people that I love so much will always be in my life no matter how many miles are between us.
In the midst of all the craziness, I got a wonderful life-altering surprise about two weeks before final exams. My Aunt surprised me with a National Geographic photography trip. Originally my aunt had planned to accompany her daughter but was unable to come through so she offered to let me go in her place. I was ecstatic, but I never thought that this one ten day trip could change my perspective of the world so deeply.Morocco was unlike any place I had ever been before. Exotic, pungent, and utterly beautiful in it's own way, the culture there opened my eyes in ways I never thought possible. As soon as I stepped off the plane I was inundated with a completely different world. As I wondered through the airport in Casablanca I found myself amidst people from literally everywhere: France, Italy, Australia, and Great Britain just to name a few.
While in country, two moments stand out to me as I reminisce. The first day that I arrived we took a trip the famous mosque in Casablanca and took photographs of the radiating sunset. While I walked through this massive courtyard in front of the mosque I realized even though the religions and cultures of this place were contradictory to anything I'd ever witnessed, these people were real and just like us. Women walked in stylish groups and laughed with each other while couples strolled hand in hand with the children rough housing and misbehaving at their side. Traveling forces one to realize that even though our beliefs and customs are different, our hearts beat as one (cheesy I know).
The second moment was a night we spent in the Sahara desert. We took a camel ride at sunset and it was perhaps the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Words cannot describe the ultimate peace and spirituality I felt at that moment. With civilization so far away and nothing but the faint whisper of the desert wind in my ears I came to a point of ultimate clarity and it was this: This life isn't about how much you accomplish professionally or how many designer shoes you can buy, it is about the experiences, the people, and the places you see.
I will have more details/ pictures later. But for now I will just leave you with that thought.
Love your 20-something World traveler,
XOXO
