Roots & reflections

One of the good things about moving, and therefore unpacking, is coming across random momentos and memrobila. Last night I found the journal that I started shortly after my month in El Salvador during my freshman year of university. Much of this Latin America madness, which has sent me hopping and skipping about the Spanish-speaking world, can be attributed to that El Salvador trip.

In my first journal entry, dated 5/28/04, I write:

"I'm subtly, yet significantly not the same person... I'm somehow more free, more confident. I want to hop on a bus, a plane and let the wind take me."

The next day I wrote down this quote by Ana Briongos from Black on Black (no idea what this actually is or where this quote came from, but it's a good one).

"It's important to travel when you're young: you travel light and cheap, and your heart is like a sponge. The paths across the world make up a school which tempers the character and reinforces tolerance and solidarity. You learn to give and take, to keep the doors open in the house of the Spirit, and above all to share. You learn to enjoy small things, to value what you have, to be happy in times of scarcity and to celebrate abundance. You learn to listen, to watch and to love."