"Saepe ne utile quidem est scire quid futurum sit"-By Kyle

Anyone reading this blog may be wondering, what in the HELL kinda language is that quote from lol?!?!?! Well, if you do a little google search you will find out that its not from any language that any of us use in this modern age (well MOST of us). Its a latin quote, and I ran across it online and I felt it was the PERFECT quote to sum up the trip and even to some extent my view on life.

The quote was from Cicero, a great Roman philosopher and politician, among other things, and it means often it is not even advantageous to know what will be. The quote is simple enough that anyone could have thought it up to be honest, but in today's age and especially for me it makes some sense. Just look around at people everywhere and anywhere. Often times they are so concerned with what's going to happen next that they forget to enjoy whats happening now. That's not a knock on them, as its quite true, and I am guilty of this as well. More importantly though, we tend to forget that many times its not acheiving the goal thats important, but the lesson and journey on the way. Basically, if we all knew what was going to happen next in our lives we wouldn't grow as people, we wouldn't learn anything and I personally feel that we would enjoy life less.

Anyhoo, getting back to business at hand, this quote summarizes why people travel, and pretty much why and how I choose to travel myself. Sure there will be hard, lonely, homesick and scared feelings along the way. But thats part of the journey. Not knowing what will come next, be it good or bad, is the most exciting part. You can't stay at home and worry what bad things COULD happen and miss out on all the good things that WILL happen.

And speaking of excited, I really want to get out there but the "red tape" so to speak seems almost endless. Its like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but its not getting any closer. Ironically though, when I look back on this I'll probably forget all about the few anxious weeks before I left lol.

So, just to update the very few of you reading this (and myself when I read this in a year lol), my visa was just issued, but I wont get it til next week, but weirdly no word on Luke's yet, even though we gave them in at the same time. Ive got my backpack, and most of my travel essentials now, with a few exceptions and were hoping to take flight around Feb. 6, 2008, so we'll see if that comes to fruition.

Well, talk to youse wize guyz later (and sorry for the long winded blog lol),

Kyle

P.S. For you couch potatoes who want to experience a bit of the travelling "unknown", check out a book called "Jupiter's Travel's" written by Ted Simon (yes, yes, shameless advertisement). He was a British bloke who motorbiked around the world in 4 years twice!!!! I read both his books this summer and they were great books which would certainly get you pumped to explore the "unknown" or at least take a road trip. Ted Simon perfectly answers why it is NOT advantageous to know what will be.