Cape Point - the very Southernmost tip of Africa
Penguins at Boulders Beach
The hallway of my dorm on the University of Cape Town campus
Six years ago, today, I was in Cape Town, South Africa. I was 20 and I was drunk. I was drunk on scenery and change and alcohol. I was confused and open-minded. The education I got in that too-short month was so concentrated and so varied that it still makes my head spin.
There isn't a week that goes by without a passing thought about that time in my life. A few of the pictures still hang on my walls and I still spend as many minutes as I can with my second half - Other Rachel (although, at this point we are averaging about fifteen minutes every two years). I am so excited that a fellow alum of the program lives in the Chi so if I ever need it, I can always call her up and be like, "remember?" and she'll be like, "yeah," and I'll know it wasn't a dream.
There is this yearning inside of my insides to go back, just for a minute, or a day, or for a year - to do it all over again - like a grown up this time. Every time I think about it there is a dull ache in my chest of wishing I could be irresponsible enough to Just Go. Maybe I was too young to appreciate all the beauty and history - but I was just the right age to enjoy being young and on an adventure.
If you have a kid (or if I have a kid) - let them travel abroad. Its worth the money and the effort. Its worth whatever you put into it for them to realize how big the world is.
