Still........Lost on a Journey

I know many of you followed my journey, but whether this is your first blog or you read them all, this is the last one until my next adventure.

I have been in the USA South Dakota, four and a half months and the amount of adjustments I have had to make are crazy. I know dont have to search for a place to sleep every night or wonder when my next meal is going to show up. I also realized how spoiled we are as Americans, we get things practically right when we want them. After traveling for half a year I saw the biggest gap in wealth in Brazil. A beautiful country but the amount of homeless people made my jaw drop with massive houses rising right behind them laying on the ground.

Anyway I wanted to round out my travels for you all.

In 6 months:

5 Continents
20 Countries
63 Cities
100's of new friends from around the world
4000+ pictures    andddddd
an entire bank account

I rode in:

22 planes
6 buses
10 trains
25 vehicles

I have been asked many times what my favorite place was, but I would imagine its something like asking who your favorite child is. Every city was awesome in its own way. Brussels for its great architecure, Barcelona for its beach and nightlife, London for the free museums, etc. etc. etc. One thing I figured out very quickly was the people and the hostels are what made one city bettern then another. If you met good people and the hostel was awesome, you are gauranteed to have a fantastic time.

There are many things I learned that I would have never learned at school, or in the workplace. This includes communication of 2-3 different languages per week, how to interact with all different kinds of lifestyles and cultures, budgeting a limited amount of funds into 6 months, and making adjustments to each and every different personality I ran into. People in the United States get so tied up with what's going on in their phone thaty they forget to look around and pay attention to the people and their surroundings. What you can see looking up from your phone, is whats going to bring you memories, not whats on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. How many great personnal stories have you gained from looking down at your phone or TV?

 Traveling I had no phone service so I had to look up at my surroundings every single day. This forced me to do things I probably never would have done before. It was amazing.

I'm sure many of the pictures you saw you thought looked cool but none of them do justice to the magnificetness of the actual structures and land I saw. Go see for yourself.

I want to tell you everything I saw, learned, and experienced, but it would take alot of time. Rather I will let you ask specific questions you have. If you know anyone traveling or thinking about it, give them my info as nothing makes me more excited then thinking about traveling and helping people with it. I know people literally around the world and would do whatever I could to help them where I could.

One thing I would like to share with anyone thinking about traveling is the less you plan your trip, the more opportunity you will come across. If you leave your schedule open it allows you to make spur of the moment decisions which make better stories and never leaves you sitting around. Very often I didn't know where my next stop was till the day before I was leaving a city or even the day I left.

Be open and inviting to any and all people you come across, you may meet your new best friend and/or traveling partner.

Anyone that is considering doing a trip or want a change in their life, Think less and do more. Dont think about all the altercations, problems, or issues with doing something completely out of the ordinary  but let the journey take you. My absolute best decisions and stories from my travels were made within 10-20 seconds after an opportunity arose. This is what life is about and what keeps us all young, not knowing the final outcome. Obviously none of us can see the future so you may as well make it as interesting as possible.

The moment you start to overthink something the fun begins to drain from it.

I have finally found a proffessional career as a mechanical engineer in Minneapolis MN. I dont know many people and I have alot to learn about the "city life." It was extremely hard to make a big decision like this after living day by day for more then 6 months. It had to be done and thats why Im here now, ready to take on the Twin Cities.

Thanks for all the support and all the friends I met along the way, you made this the trip of a lifetime! Hope to see each and every one of you again in the future.


Till next time, I wil be riding the wave of life.