All Over and Just Beginning

So this final entry was meant to take place on my last night in Lima, but due to two separate and dysfunctional internet cafe's (perfectly typical), it has had to wait until my arrival. So now I write to you, freshly showered and clean, from my beloved and comfy home in Seattle. And how nice it is.

The last day of my trip I spent in Lima, in the same hotel as my very first night as a matter of fact. I was very much anticipating going home, but was also reflecting on the past four months. How was I different from the Owen that left Seattle 124 days before, if at all? What had I learned? How had I grown? All big questions to answer to myself.

There is one thing I am sure of. Like Socrates said - "One thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing."

All I have seen and learned in a way has expanded my world to an overwhelming size, and shown me how much more there is to experience out there. I feel older, but at the same time younger than ever. Like I'm at the beginning of something, and this trip was only the first few steps in another journey much grander. But all I have is an inkling, a feeling of things to come, not a clue as to what they are, or where they will take me.

So that's the big picture of what's going on in my head, but there are other things this trip has given me besides a sort of dumb-struck awe and confusion. A love and closeness to South America is one. The people, the culture, the history - just the beauty of something different and wonderful. Getting to a new town, chatting with the cab driver en route to the hostal, taking that first walk around the plaza; I grew to love this routine, and how unroutine it was to the life I knew. I learned to never trust directions from a South American, always pack some toilet paper in your back pocket, and that there is nothing tougher than a 70-year old Peruvian woman. I am more independent now, more confident and more thankful. We are all very fortunate to have the things we do, and I've attained a higher awareness and a feeling of responsibility to capitalize on my opportunities.

I don't want to really milk my brain right now, and no doubt I will continue to realize the lessons I've learned as I'm challenged in different ways in the future. But for now I'm happy knowing I had a hell of an experience and I've got three months home with family before I need to worry about anything again.

Please let me know what you've thought of my blog, I enjoy reading your comments as much as you hopefully enjoy mine. And stay tuned - perhaps Europe or Africa next?

Last day, can you find me?