Wanderlust:

Via Maggie,
"Your bag slung over your shoulder
Made you an efficient wanderer,
Unbalanced, but with bright eyes"
-Y. Amichai

I'm having these worries about settling down. I mean, I hate moving as much as anyone else (despite more experience with it than many people my age), but I want to travel. I want to take my backpack and the money I've saved working for the last five years and disappear for a year or so. I want to go to all these places I haven't had a chance to see: Eastern Europe, SE Asia, Russia, South Africa and Egypt. I hear Ian's stories about Cambodia, Donal's stories about Croatia, Marie's stories about Argentina, and I want to go to all those places. I tell my own stories about Greece and Prague and Nicaragua and Belfast, but they don't quite stand up. Or there aren't enough of them, and maybe for me there could not be enough of them.

There are places I can stay in much of Europe, in Tokyo, in Hong Kong, in Argentina at least. I've got a decent amount of money, and it isn't that hard to pick up some work wherever you go. I'm young, not tied down, possibly about to be unemployed. If I don't have much stuff, moving isn't bad, and I can always store stuff with my parents.

I don't know. I know that it's almost time to be responsible, but I don't have to be responsible right now. And somehow I don't want to be in Chicago next year. If I get a good job, I'll take it, and all this is just an academic issue. Ah, but if I don't--if I don't, does anyone want to go around the world?