I was unable to take a picture of the incredible view from my window seat heading home from Singapore, but this amazing picture my friend Colin took from a flight over Iceland serves the purpose.
Most people dread spending hours on an airplane. I certainly do not enjoy being stationary for more than ten hours at a time and cramped into an area smaller than my hall closet. Yet despite the discomfort, the experience has come to symbolize something so innately valuable to me, that when I curl up in that tiny seat with ipod and book in hand, eye mask atop my forehead, periodically staring out the window to the clouds, sea, and land below; I feel more alive than ever.
It symbolizes the unparalleled personal and professional growth that has come from seeing the world. Interacting with people who are so completely different and yet so exactly like you all at the same time, understanding unique cultural and historical contexts through first hand experience, reflecting on your own life in those moments of quietude during travel, pushing past the boundaries you didn't even know you had, comprehending something that just cannot be understood from behind the pages of a book. These are but a few of the many experiences I have had when away from home that have had tremendous impact on my development.
And so when I look at that picture of the clouds from above, I am overwhelmed with a feeling of what for me at least, life is all about.
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