My Greatest Adventure

So the story goes something like this: Boy finishes high school. Boy travels to Europe. Boy contracts 'travel fever'. Boy thinks he loves, over and over. Boy does not love, nor does he know it. Boy fails to find direction. Therefore, Boy fails. Repeatedly. Boy matures, and Boy suffers the greatest loss of his life - a mentor, a teacher, a friend, a father figure, a grandfather. Boy is truly lost and in a doldrum in which Boy does not move, but instead begins to sink. Boy mourns. Life continues, and still Boy mourns. As an act of escape, Boy travels to a distant land. Alone, with no knowledge of language or customs, Boy hopes of finding himself or at least peace. Boy finds both.

That's the story of my life, and the lead up to my greatest adventure. I went to Switzerland in search of anything that would make life the more bearable. In August of 2000, My trip began in Zurich. I touched down at 7:00 am local time. I had needed to escape my surroundings, and I had not slept on the flight to the land of wonderful cheese and chocolate. I immediately began my excursion into the city, and I met a young fellow named Stephan Kupper. I toured the city with the German, and I made a good friend. After my short stay in Zurich, I saw Stephan off at the train station, and I boarded my train a few hours later. From the capital, it was off to Interlakken. While it was nice to have seen the capital, Interlakken is to this day what I think of when recalling my time there. I entered on a train into the quaint little town. During my stay, mist seemed to cover the mountains endlessly. It was the most tidy, quaint, and wonderful tucked away part of the world that I have ever experienced. There, apart from the sailing, touring, sight-seeing, and other activities, I found peace. It is a place that I can't really explain. I saw a movie called "What Dreams May Come". In that movie, Robin Williams dies and goes to his personal realm of heaven. It was a place on the Italian border with the Alps and a beautiful lake that he had been to earlier in life with his soul mate. The only comparison I have is that if I have ever received a personal glimpse of what my heaven would be like, then it is Interlakken, Switzerland.

While not wanting to go into extreme detail, I found many pictures over the course of the last few days, and I had to write about my experience there. It changed my life. My life is being changed again as I move from Tuscaloosa to Atlanta. I helped Jason Goldman move today. Among my closest friends, it was difficult to say goodbye to Jason. He has been my comrade in the trenches, voice of support, and a wonderful friend and human being to me. We have much in common, and his departure signaled the end of the era for me. This is when graduation has hit me. Kenny - gone, Ben - gone, and now Jason. It is a little scary. I have read my journal that I found among my things that I have not updated in several years. The focus of my life changed so much. From what it should have been on in the first place, my priorities and myself in general, I have become an entirely different person.

Now to be honest I am scared. I don't know what awaits me. I will be in Atlanta where I will meet colleagues and other friends, but it will not be the same. I will truly miss the people that I have become so close to while studying here. I will be alone, and that is going to be a challenge for me. I suppose I will work late and take up hobbies. I don't really know. I hope that in time, perhaps I will find another great adventure.

Leaving Town

This time, for good. I will soon update my blog regularly now that MIS now longer rules the roost of my time. I am posting a college life photobucket, and I will soon have many photographs of memories that I've had here at UA as a link on my blog. I have a month to get cracking on the wrap up of my book, and I have so much work to do around the apartment before I go. It has been sad since graduation. Slowly but surely my friends have moved away - most of them anyway. Now it's my turn. There's something about leaving something that you have admired for so long. I told some of my friends that I thought it was probably a bit like child birth. You have had this thing inside of you that made you grow for so long, and now that it is out it is more rewarding than you could have imagined. It still leaves a hollow space somewhere inside though. Now I have to fill my life with new people again, and I have to move on with building a career, finding a home, and a family. It has been a wonderful experience to be here, and I hope that the rest of life is as rewarding as this has been. So long Tuscaloosa, it's been a wild ride.