The End's Not Near

On the eve my departure...

Literally, I'm leaving for the airport in about an hour. The sad thing is, I'm feeling pretty much the same way I felt the day before leaving the United States. I guess the thing is, after being in a place for a certain amount of time, you start to get sort of attached to it in a way. It's not exactly home, but there's people here who you've become close with, places you're familiar with, smells and sights you've grown accustomed to. You have that coffee shop you stop in at least every week where the guy knows your order, and your favorite spot right in the corner. You've memorized the bus schedule by heart so you no longer have that scary sinking feeling when you have to venture out on your own. You finally have your stuff in just the right arrangement, and yet...after all this adjusting, it's time to move on again. What is it about human nature that makes us prone to mold, to adapt to our surroundings? Is it pure drive for survival? Or is it a nesting instinct? Even nomads have to make their bed to rest for a short time. So what am I to take from this? That South Korea was only a place to make my bed for a time before moving on?
I've learned a lot from coming here. I've learned that sometimes hand gestures are the best form of communication. I've learned that a smile and thank you can go a long way. I've learned that life isn't fair, and sometimes that's okay. I've learned to take criticism with a grain of salt. And most of all, I've learned to glean everything you can from each experience, because it is just that, an experience. Some of the best memories I have in Korea were the spontaneous ones, the ones I never planned for, never prepared for, never could have prepared for. So I guess this was my biggest lesson. Prepare all you can, but most of all, be prepared for not being prepared.
I'm on to another adventure now, off to enigmatic and mystifying Vietnam where new experiences await. So is life, "everything passes, everything changes...just do what you think you should do." Bob Dylan said it right, in the end it's all gonna change anyways, but that doesn't mean your decisions won't have an impact...on you, on the people around you, on the world you live in. Live with curiosity, live with a drive to do the things you feel compelled to do, and live with the remembrance that "everything you do will be insignificant, but you should do it anyways."