The Year of Wanderlust

Like many people, I get reflective at the end of the year. This year, however, I did a little reflecting in a way I had never done before: blog-style. I started blogging back on Groundhog Day of 2008 and I've been pretty consistent about it over the year, so I just sat down and read my entire blog from the end back to the beginning and overall I think it captures the overall shape of my 2008.

It was an interesting way to look at my year - to see the things I felt like I just had to put up for the whole world to be able to see. Why, for instance, did I feel like the whole world should see the half-stache? Or that the end of Gilmore Girls left me an emotional wreck? Or that I am a humongous nerd?

There are a few things that I compulsively wrote about this year - my broken foot, Nintendo records, the Jazz, scoring free stuff - and there were some drafts that I never got around to finishing (my first and last Capoeira lesson, my guided tour of the best and worst of Detroit, spending the night in the Campinas bus terminal). But the entry that seems to represent my 2008 more than any other was a little post written on August 5th on the ancient computer in the public library of Cambridge, New York entitled Wanderlust.

When I think back on 2008 (and on this whole period of my life), I will think about think about all the crazy wandering I did and all the amazing places I got to see from Iguaçú Falls and the Amazon River to The Breakers and Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes. I visited four countries, fifteen U.S. states, nine Brazilian states, and some of the worlds great cities: Chicago, Seattle, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, São Paulo, New York City, Detroit (link missing, since I never finished it), Minneapolis.

This picture, taken at the Festa de São João in Salvador, Brazil, is probably my favorite picture from my wanderings this year.

I'm sure the next year will take me wandering to some interesting places, but I don't know if I can top last summer. But it's always more fun to travel with a buddy or two, so if anyone wants to head to the Upper Peninsula or Washington D.C. or New Orleans or anywhere else, lets team up. It's like Kim Novak says in Vertigo: "Only one is a wanderer. Two are always going somewhere."