In a couple hours our flight will take off from Seattle to Beijing and our true backpacking will begin. It’s actually happening and “surreal” doesn’t begin to adequately describe it. Jess set up this fabulous blog (with no help from me, unsurprisingly) and launched this ship with her inaugural post, but we figured I should also chime in with an introductory blog post to share my thoughts pre-travels.
While I have so many thoughts associated with this next step, I’m most surprised by the amount of emotions that are flooding through as this becomes a reality. I’m literally teary-eyed (manly, right?) at the realization that this is the culmination of so many years of a personal journey for me, which has involved saving feverishly, enduring NYC at times when it felt unbearable, grinding through occasionally difficult jobs and clinging to the hope that my vague dream of traveling would occur despite these impediments. Beyond that, it’s a big moment in mine and Jess’s relationship, as we perform this trust fall of taking on the world together as just the two of us. It’s all just a lot and kind of overwhelming, but in the very best possible way.
Anyway, that’s enough emotions for now, since Jess and I also share enough excitement to overwhelm a small elephant. This journey will surely be filled with the highest highs and some unfortunate lows, but we’re eager to share it all with you and for you to digitally join us in this process. We can’t promise how frequently we’ll post or what the posts will even look like (e.g., we definitely want to circle back to update folks on the highlights of our “domestic travels” from the last few weeks), but we’ll try to be diligent and appreciate your patience with us along the way.
Obviously our loved ones want frequent “we’re alive!” emails and calls, which may not be easy to provide. While it’s an imperfect solution, we encourage people to use the feature on this blog where you plug in your email address and receive notifications when we upload posts. It’s the best way to receive ongoing confirmations that we’re alive, as well as to hear about our travels and general musings.
We’re about to head to the airport, so I had better finish this off. Keep us in your thoughts, wish us luck (we’ll need it!) and please stay in touch with us as much as possible via email, WhatsApp, Facebook or any of your other preferred mediums. In the meantime, keep your fingers crossed that Jess and I don’t drive each other nuts on our 11.5 hour flight to Beijing which has us enduring a 15 hour time change….
