SABBATICAL

I guess I started this thing because there were things I wanted to say. Not necessarily to let anyone know or to receive any kind of input or advice...just some things rattling around inside my head that needed somewhere to go....

“Travel keeps you young. It does this by simply putting you in situations that make you feel like a child again. Magically lost in a moment of discovery. Beautifully confused. It could be the first time you awaken to the 5:00 a.m. call to prayer from the local mosque on Morocco’s far Atlantic shore, the first time you paddle out over the shallow reefs of the Caribbean, or the first time you realize the people living in squalor can achieve happiness as easily as those living in mansions. These are life’s opportunities to shed the hustle of modernity, to join the moment, and stop sprinting toward some prefabricated goal. Your heart races. Your metabolism shifts into a lower gear. Everything is new again. You’re Sipping Jetstreams.” –Joel Patterson

I don’t know why I never read the introduction to Sipping Jetstreams before this week. I can’t believe that there was a piece of published Joel Patterson writing that I hadn’t seen yet. But anyway, this is a big deal.

When I lived in Philadelphia 5 years ago I ran to the gym from my dorm at 6AM in dark gray slush, sucking down cold air so crisp I thought it’d cut through my lungs. I was miserable. I waited like a kid on Christmas Eeve for my monthly issues of Transworld Surf then sat in my room, with the heat blasting, pretending to be in Baja, Costa Rica, the Gold Coast, Tavarua, the North Shore…. anywhere but where I was. I lived in every picture via the romance of perfect waves, hot weather, good lighting, and Joel’s words. I did a sketch every day until the day I dropped out of school and moved to Honolulu.

This is one of them:



Five years later, I read this little intro about travel and I can’t get Indo off my mind. My best friend said if I say ‘Bali’ one more time she’s going to hit me. I’m like two seconds away from busting out my markers.

I want to see what colors the waves turn in evening light. I want to take my time. I want to slow down. I want to be silent for days and just listen. I want to get scared. Get creative. Be reborn and live on a different wavelength than I do now.

To any of my friends who think I’m out of my mind, I just wanna ask: what’s the difference between losing it and finding yourself anyway?