I was thinking last night about all the places that I have seen in the world. It’s safe to say that I have barely scratched the surface, but I’ve done and seen things that some people never have a lifetime to experience. I started to trace a list of things in my head and started to take a trip, in no particular order… Climbing the path to Castle Neuschwanstein in Bavaria. Attempting to hike Mt. Fuji, only to have altitude sickness over take me, sleeping in a hut on the side of the sleeping volcano, and watching the sun rise over the Kanto Plain. Dying for breath while climbing the steps of The Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, sitting on the top, and being mind blown by the fact that my blood line could have passed through these parts. Walking through the catacombs of Cholula, the largest pyramid structure in the world. Running around Yokohama with Jennie, Doug, and Aki, eating at the Hard Rock, taking a boat ride around Yokohama Bay, Chinatown, yaki-soba, yaki-udon, and beer machines… Can’t forget about the beer machines. “Drinking beer on the train, let John do his thing…”
Going to Amsterdam and seeing where Anne Frank hid from the Nazis during the occupation and lived the last days of her free life, if you can call it that. Dachau… That’s all I should have to say about that experience. And the Berlin Wall, all of its graffiti, the history, Checkpoint Charlie, and just the awe of keeping people prisoners like they did. Hanging out with my friends in the Zocalo in Mexico City, checking out the vendors, the smell of raw sewage, the Aztec ruins, and all the VW Beetles that were everywhere. Seeing the sacred site of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the image of the virgin on Juan Diego’s cape, the people walking only on their knees as they enter the front gate, and never standing up until they get back out. Taking a boat ride down the Rhine River in Germany, looking at all of the castles lining the shores, and just in complete astonishment of the history all around me…
This is just what I can think about off the top of my head, and I know that there is some details, places, and events that I am forgetting. However, I amaze myself when I really put my mind to it. I have done a lot with the short life that I have led to this point. If there is one passion in my life, it’s to see more of the world before I die. When you think about how large the world is, but how small the planet you live on actually is, problems in your life seem a lot more insignificant.