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There are two ways to live life. One is to live as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is to live as though everything is a miracle. - Albert Einstein
So its been about a month since my trip, and I've had a chance to do some reflecting on it. One thing I keep coming back to again and again... is that the world is really big. People say theres no place like home, and thats very true. But the converse is also true! Home is not like any other place!
Riding through the country made me realize that theres so many different things out there, so many different people, different views, different wonders and all that. Everyday we'd ride through a different state or two, and everything would be different. We met people who'd spent their lives working in the big city, and then decided to retire off in a little town of 300 people. We met folks travelling across the country on their own as well. People of different shapes and sizes and backgrounds and upbringings. And the sights! The rolling Montana hills, the glorious Rockies, the Badlands, the not-so-interesting-to-see, ride-in-a-straight-line-all-day plains of Wyoming... It really opened my eyes to the truth and magnitude behind the simple statement: People are different. People really are different.
When I started my first year in college, I quickly realized that wherever you go, you have two options. You can bring all your baggage with you and transform that new place into whats comfortable for you, or you can go with no strings attached and see what the place has to offer. I chose option one. So when move in day started at the beggining of frosh week, the Ng clan moved all my stuff (well, all my geek essentials - computer, stereo, guitars, amp etc) and jammed all that we could into my little dorm room. That way, no matter how different the outside world seemed, no matter how out of place I felt at school, my room was still just that - my room. It was my getaway from the college life, my comfort place.
As I progressed through the years, I noticed that I would slowly invite new things (and people) into my room. As people entered my little world, they left pieces of themselves there, and would leave my room forever changed. The more people I met, the more new things my idea of "home" included, and so the more things I would encorporate into my room.
During my years at Waterloo, I happened to meet a guy named Rich. Rich and I got along real well, and we had lots in common - guitars and women. Well, sort of. Rich is married. But we liked to talk about guitars and women. Rich would share with me his stories of the girls he's chased, and I'd share with him the stories of the girls I'd be chasing. We'd share our tastes in music with each other, and eventually Rich ended up adding one of the best things ever into my little world - motorcycles. Rich and I now spend our time talking about guitars, women (well, one woman in particular), and motorcycles.
See, I think the point of meeting people is so that we can expand our notion and understanding of the world. Riding across the country last month made me realize that theres way too much out there for one person to be able to experience it all. Thats why we have friends - so they can experience other things, and share them with us. They say that life's too short to make all the mistakes yourself. But life's also too short to experience all the greatness and wonder of it all yourself too. We need other people to help enrich our lives, and to be enriched by us. We need to experience more of the world, and share those experiences with those we meet and those we love. The world out there is big - and I wanna see it all.
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