O Captain! My Captain!

I’m not a big believer in fate or things that are “meant to be”. But every once in a while the universe throws something in your path that you simply can’t argue with - and so my blog is born. 

I’ve been planning a five month trip for quite a while now, and I toyed with the idea of blogging about it. The usual stuff put me off at first (nobody is going to read it, it’s been done to death, you’re not even that interesting... and the list goes on). But to be honest, there was one major obstacle stopping me - I didn’t know what to call it. Absolutely no idea. How was I going to write a blog when I couldn’t even think of a name for it?! The pressure was all too much, so I convinced myself to quit before I even started.

Until today! When the mother of all great ideas, procrastination, led me to an online list of “The 12 Most Notorious Film Quotes Ever”. There was one in particular from The Dead Poets Society that struck a chord:

“Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary”.

In fairness, I have just quit my job and taken out a massive loan to go on a freakin’ holiday for half a year – so any reassurance that comes my way is welcome! 

But I watched the movie and it genuinely reminded me why I’m going away in the first place;

for me, for my experiences, for my stories – to make my life extraordinary.

So with a little thanks to Walt Whitman (but mostly Robin Williams), I realised that this could be more than just a blog, it can be “my verse... my contribution”, and the best souvenir I could wish for from my travels. 

This ad from Apple with a voice over from the movie sums it up better than I can:

I found the name I was looking for too: "Life Exists"... and I can't wait to find out what it has in store for me.

(I promise not to get all deep and meaningful too often, so travel/packing/route planning/hostel booking/panic-setting-in related blogs from here on in!)