Dream Trip 2008: February

Great Travel Moment

Having just finished a year teaching English in Japan, I decided to travel to China. Unfortunately, my fellow teachers and friends were already headed home for interviews, new jobs, or grad school. Yet I realized that a year overseas had given me the confidence to face a solo trip, and that is how I ended up climbing the Great Wall and snapping this photo. This photo in particular captures what I felt at the time. This moment, watching these three friends with their Japanese parasols against this I-cannot-believe-I-am-here backdrop, was the culmination of a year of new experiences. It reminded me of the friendships I had made, the places I had been, and the confidence that my travels had inspired in me. The revelation that I was at home and far from home at the same time convinced me that I will always be a traveler.