Only Days

Rio de Janeiro
It is 4:55 a.m.  I am leaving for Rio de Janeiro right now, so I do not have time to type much more.  I will return on Monday.  Tuesday night I will board a plane in Sao Paulo and head back home to Ohio.  My bags are all packed and waiting for me.

Foz do Iguacu
Last weekend I traveled with my friend from Mexico 15 hours by bus to the most famous waterfalls (cataratas) in South America. The city of Foz do Iguacu is located on the border of Paraguay, Agentina and Brazil.  It was so much better than Niagara Falls.  Absolutely mind blowing and beautiful.  After being in the presence of something that beautiful, that majestic I felt like there was nothing more to see in the world.  I joked with the group that we were site-seeing with that because of this "I felt ready for death". 

Just Emotion
Within the past ten months there has been countless times (like at the waterfalls) when I have stopped, observed the situation I was in, and decided that I did not need anything else.  I have had this returning thought that I have been overly fortunate, beyond what I deserve.  At many points I found it hard to believe in reality, and thought many times that the fullness of my early life must be making up for an unbalance that I will have in the future.    I am humbled at what has been given to me, the travel, the experience, the friendships, the challenges, the growth.  What I feel is beyond my ability to express and sometimes I fear words because of there ability to simplify and dull. My soul is a mixture of emotions, so shaken up that it is almost impossible to separate one from the other.  Am I happy?  Yes of course but at the same time my heart feels like it is in my throat every time I look at the clock. There is one very clear and distinct feeling however, and that is of thankfulness.  I am so thankful to my sister who in 2008 made me apply to be an exchange student as her Christmas gift.  I am very thankful to all those back home who supported my decision to come such as my teachers and my Rotary club.  I feel I am in great debt to my host families here in Brazil, who have taken care of me above and beyond what was expected of them.  I am thankful to my real family back home, who after some fidgeting became my greatest supporters. 
The past ten months of my life have been so exaggerated in terms of activities and emotions that to me it hardly seems like real life.  There is a good chance that when looking back, the only way I'll be able to tell the difference between life fiction and nonfiction will be my poorly written blog or messy diary.  It will be these archives that will remind me of all the things I have to "pay forward".  These people, this experience, has given me great things.  It will be my duty to give this greatness back to the world.