Over this last week, as I have been preparing to leave, the reality of this pending journey has begun to settle in more and more with each passing day. To say that these last few weeks have been full of pure and unadulterated excitement would be a lie. To be completely honest, they have been quite stressful. There is nothing more daunting than trying to wrap your life up in a nice little box and ensuring that you’ve crossed all t’s and dotted all i’s. So despite the abundant support from my family and friends and the extraordinary love that I’ve felt, I’ve also been a bit overwhelmed.

Since that pivotal day in January when I clicked “buy” on the Delta website and purchased a ticket to Santiago, Chile, I’ve had some really high highs and some really low lows. Luckily for me, as the days progressed, I received little signs of encouragement that have assured me I’m on the right path. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason and these signs have helped me to feel that everything is falling into place and in just the right time.

One of the most prominent moments that sticks out in my head occurred while I was packing up my room. I was going through some old journals from when I was studying abroad in Spain and right after I graduated college. Those were two particular phases of my life where I tried to journal or write down ideas/thoughts/goals that were important to me in the moment. I wasn’t very successful in keeping up this habit, however, it appears that I had some foresight. On one page from back in 2010, shortly after graduating college, I had written some financial goals for myself. At the time, they didn’t mean much and simply stated:

Money Goals

1. Pay off credit card balance to zero and pay in full every month
2. Save enough to spend one year in South America

This notebook was quickly forgotten and my goal writing came to an end. However, to see this in writing 5+ years later and to discover that I had unknowingly fulfilled this goal of a bright eyed and bushy tailed college graduate was eye-opening and even a bit surreal (and for the record, yes, I also have zero credit card debt).

A second moment that I remember vividly occurred just this past weekend. I was taking the train back from the suburbs after dropping off a final carload of possessions to be stored in my friends basement for the coming year. I was feeling a bit empty, devoid of the majority of my material comforts and faced with the thought of a single backpack for the next few months. In order to pass the time, I was reading Becoming Steve Jobs: The Revolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli and I came across the script to Steve Jobs’ 2005 commencement address to the Stanford graduating class. The entire speech was inspirational and I couldn’t believe that I had never read or seen it in its entirety. (If you’ve never read/watched it, you can watch the speech here or read the transcript here.) Every point Steve made in this speech hit home for me on as I commence this trip. So as I’m working to trust that my dots will connect in the future as I follow my own dreams and intuition, I’ll continue to remember his final words, which, as he mentions, were published in the final issue of the Whole Earth Catalog in the 1970s; these words were “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”  and they perfectly encompass what this trip means to me.

These little signs have been a continued source of inspiration to me and I can’t wait to see what else I might stumble upon when the time is right. It will be interesting to discover how these dots will connect for me in the future and as this adventure unfolds.

See you on the other side, my friends. And remember: Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

xx Christina