Well, Well, Well.....
I have been so very blessed to have this opportunity before me. Who would have known, me, a high-school dropout about to take a trip around the world! I look back and see how amazingly blessed that I have been.
Life is such an amazing gift, and each day brings new possibilities. I think back and wonder about the choices that I have made and the blessings I have recieved. Leaving Oregon in 1994 to move to Michigan with my good buddy Tran. While there I got my GED. Shortly thereafter, I came to Maryland. I only planned on staying for a short while to regroup and then get back to my girlfriend at the time, who was then living as a flight attendant in Idaho.
I had one thing that I had to take care of before I left and that was to meet Tran in Boston to pick up a couple bucks to get me enough gas money to make it to Idaho. While I was there I couldn't find Tran anywhere. I checked out all of the places that he said that he might be. No luck.
My last day in town, We were on our way to visit the Bull and Finch tavern (the facade is familiar from Cheers.) We walked down Newbury st. and in the distance I saw a familiar Asian guy dip down under an awning about two blocks away on a very busy street. I sped up a bit and and went where I thought this figure had gone. Lo and behold it was Tran.....in a city of about 2 million people.
This trip was relevant for two reasons. One, my cousin went to Boston University and while I was there I slept on his floor in his dorm. He had these luminated stars on his ceiling and I remember looking up at night thinking how great the college experience would be. The second reason this trip was fateful was because I bumped into Tran. In our conversations over the next couple of days, I came to the realization that I didn't want to go backwards, that I couldn't go backwards. If I was to go back to the Pacific NW after what had then been about eight months, I would have nothing to show for the time and money that I spent. Plus, I left for a reason and that was to pursue a better life.
I came back to Maryland and stayed with my Aunt and cousins, I started going to Community College where I began to feel successful. I did well enough to get accepted into the University of Maryland's main campus, where I graduated with a degree in Government and Politics in May of 2001. All of this I attribute to that fateful trip to Boston on my way back to the NW.
After college, I got an entry level job in the Insurance business as an Associate Underwriter. From there, through more blessings, I was able to rise up very rapidly to a position as a Large Group Sales Executive, where I did extraordinarily well in a very short time. I then was recruited to go to another large health insurance company as a Senior Sales Executive. The combination of this sales experience helped me save enough to take the time off to do something that I have always wanted to do, explore the World!
My unusual path has made me very unique. I love people and I understand struggles. I have always had close friends that were non-native to the US and have learned so much through them about such places as Vietnam, Korea, Bulgaria, Senegal, Gambia, Morocco, Peru, Bolivia. I have a deep desire to see these places for myself and to see if what I think is true; that this is a very small world and that people are fundamentally good, and largely preoccupied with the same general concerns across the board, to live, to love, to share, and to have security for themselves and their families.
Please join me as I travel around. I hope to update this site frequently and would be honored if you could share the adventure with me.
