I am in Chicago O'Hare airport right now. About five minutes ago I passed the gate I departed out of when I left for school at APU. Right now I am passing a gate I arrived at from LA, 8 days after September 11th, 2001. I am heading for the gate I departed to Israel for my study abroad (which is oddly being used as a gate to Atlanta). All this takes me back to my first international trip: France, I was in 8th grade and I was 14 years old.

Thinking about this makes me crack up a little inside. Since that trip I have been in 17 other countries and flown close to 200,000 miles. What a difference 200,000 miles & 17 countries make.

My first trip to France was with about 40 other middle school students. If memory serves me correct, we agreed to the trip in October and left in June. I remember being in at least 4 meetings before we left. I can remember taking probably a good week to pack and "gather the essentials." I remember going to the bank in downtown Fort Wayne with my Dad and exchanging US money into French money. I even remember receiving my first Passport.

This trip was pretty much the opposite. I traveled by myself (although I met up with 30 APU students). I agreed to the trip in late February and departed the first of April. I had one 15 minute phone meeting. Packing took me all of 15 minutes to complete. As far as money, well, I took $40 bucks in US cash, a credit card and an ATM card and I figured I would be ok (which I was). My now worn passport was sitting cosily in my desk drawer. I knew I was going to need to stay in a hotel as well one night and I didn't even have that booked until I hoped off my plane in Tokyo on the way back and walked up to the information desk and said, "I need to book a hotel room for tonight." Quite the contrast.

I think in part this is because I have more money now, and strangely, when traveling, money is like freedom. Take for instance the hotel. I just thought to myself, worse comes to worse, I'll just book a room at the Hyatt or Hilton or wherever has an vacancy for whatever price. But I think there is more to it than just money, and that brings me back to O'Hare.

My first time in O'Hare alone was when I was 15 and I was flying to visit my grandparents in Denver. I didn't even have an escort. If I wanted to, I could figure out how many times since then I have flown through O'Hare (but I am too lazy). But all that travel builds confidence and it makes me realize a.) how small this world really is, and b.) everywhere is pretty much the same in operation but vastly different in experience.

What I mean by point b. is that a train in Japan is like a train in Europe, which is like a train in America. A bus ride in Japan is like a bus ride in America. The airport terminal in Japan is exactly like Australia, which is pretty much the same in America. Making a hotel reservation is the same everywhere, some just cost more. There's really nothing to fear when traveling abroad other than the experience you might miss by not doing so. So if you got the time and money: get traveling!

(P.S. The first photo is a group of my (at the time) friends after we checked through security at O'Hare on our way to France. The second photo is of me rubbing the belly of a GIANT Buddha statue near Kamasura.)