A good place to start

It took me 4 or 5 months to decide to go to Chile so trying to give some sort of order to all the things that raced through my head is impossible. That means you're left to try to make sense of the pile of thoughts that build up in my head. This is the way my brain works. It's something I'm working on.

As much as I'd like to say this trip is about helping the children of the world by giving the gift of English, it's not (and I don't believe that English is some sort of inherent gift that the people of the word truly need). There are many altruistic reasons why someone would decide to volunteer to work in a foreign country but most of these are just positive side effects of my reasons for doing so.

There is nothing wrong with life as it was. I love my roommates. I liked my job and it seemed to like me back. Life was comfortable...but that's the problem. My entire life up to this point has been nothing if not comfortable. Comfortable becomes quite boring and ultimately unfulfilling. Before sounding any more unappreciative of the relative ease of my life, allow me to elaborate. I'm fully aware of the many people that have actual problems and the daily challenges that go along with them. I'm very thankful to have been raised by great parents and to have had such great friends over the years. I wouldn't be in the position to be able to take such a large leap of faith without their support and encouragement. It is also because of this love and belief that I want and know that I needed to do something bigger.

I really want to test myself in the most fundamental ways to see what I'm capable of. I want to do something that, at some point along the way, I'm not sure I'm capable of. Moving to a place 7,000 miles away where they speak a language I don't know seemed to fit the bill.

I'm looking forward to all the new experiences I'll have and the new perspectives on life itself that I'll be able to observe. With any luck, I might just learn a thing or two about myself and what I really want and need along the way.