We’ve reached the two week countdown. Fourteen days, and for some reason that timeframe feels just poetic enough to merit a blog post.
Fourteen days. I’m trying to pick my jaw up off the floor and keep the general eye widening to a minimum. Sappy grin intact, I’m checking my watch like there’s suddenly a paycheck attached to an intimate knowledge of the minute hand. Anticipation has settled in my stomach and I can never really tell whether I’m constantly playing host to an entire family of butterflies or whether I’ve built my home on the tracks of a roller coaster.
Suddenly, I’m measuring time in moments and trying to find significance in every conversation because “How are you?” keeps sounding like “Goodbye.” Eleven months has become both the novel and the chapter. And if you’ve got any tricks for wrapping your mind around time, as a form of measurement, or a human construct, or really just that thing that defines the beginning of a fairy tale, then I’d love to hear them.
Eleven months is a long time and no time at all, so I keep finding myself in this strange state of contradiction where arbitrary moments are everything they’ve never been before.
And life is beautiful, but it’s always been beautiful.
It’s just easier to cherish moments when they seem fleeting.
Come September 5th, I’ll leave to the tune of Pomp and Circumstance, giving my family and friends the obligatory handkerchiefs to wave from the dock. Naturally, they’ll promise to take a whole series of pictures to be edited with the proper filters and posted to all forms of social media, poignant captions included.
I’ll sneak out in the early hours of the morning when everyone is still sound asleep in their beds, letting the sunrise whisper all the appropriate goodbyes. Maybe I’ll leave a note on the counter, expressing my love to Mom and apologizing to Dad for using all the milk that morning in my Cheerios. Honey Nut of course. Just this once, he’ll have to take his coffee black.
The reality of September 5th will probably fall somewhere in the middle, not in the least because an epic naval departure admittedly falls just outside my current budget. Eleven months is simply a long time and no time at all.
I’ve got two weeks left to wonder what She will see, that other self who looks back over these next eleven months like they were both decades and minutes, the one who will call them memories. I’m so excited to meet Her. I’ve got two weeks left to wonder if I’ve completely overshot the amount of underwear needed on the Race. How exactly does one regulate their underwear to square liter ratio?
Over the next two weeks I’ll find my footing in the greatest gift I have ever received from God, the knowledge that He and I will never have to say goodbye.
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We’ve reached the two week countdown, and I’m gearing up for eleven months of regular blog posts. If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all the latest news from my Race please click the “Subscribe to Blog” link on the left hand side of your screen.
I’d also like to thank everyone who has supported me thus far. With your help I’ve raised over $10,000!! Please know how much I appreciate every donation. I still have around $6,000 left to raise before December 31st. If you have considered supporting me at any point and haven’t yet taken that step, I would be incredibly grateful for your support. To donate to my World Race click the “Support Me” link on the left hand side of your screen.
Thank you and God bless!!
