Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh.
I've been planning on going on a three-week motorcycle tour of Argentina this June for some time now. This plan has recently morphed into something much more ambitious. It has become a dream that I will go public with now. A few weeks ago I awoke in the middle of the night with a burning desire: to ride my motorbike from the southern tip of South America (Tierra Del Fuego) up through the Americas all the way back to Toronto. It would be an adventure of a lifetime. I would ride thousands of miles across two continents. I would see the barren plains of Patagonia. I would see the towering peaks of the Andes. I would see lush rainforests and barren deserts. I would see volcanoes, rivers, waterfalls, and canyons. I would meet people living everywhere from remote villages to megacities. I could climb Machu Picchu in Peru and go whitewater rafting in Argentina. The possibilities are endless. I could go whereever I wanted. With the right motorcycle, you can go just about anywhere.
Such an adventure is not without its perils. There is the risk of having an accident or succumbing to some tropical disease. There is also the chance of being robbed or worse. But such things can happen anywhere. I will not live my life in fear. (Although I won't deny that sometimes I find the prospect of riding such a vast distance alone more scary than exciting.)
Planning such a trip normally takes over a year. I have less than 5 months. It will be extremely challenging to pull it off. I need to choose a motorcycle. I need to decide what gear to bring. I need to check to see what paperwork will be required. I need to learn how to fix a motorbike in the field. It would be nice to learn how to speak Spanish too.
One of the ironies of life is that when you're young and have the time and energy to explore the world, you don't have the money; and when you're old and have the money, you don't have the time or freedom. How many people could escape their career and family obligations for 3 months to travel the world? I have the desire and the time, but if I choose to use my line of credit to travel instead of spending the summer earning money doing a research project (which is arguably the sensible thing to do both financially and in terms of my long-term career prospects), I will run out of credit well before I finish my 4 year program. Is it reckless to knowingly put myself in a position where I won't have enough money in the future for daily living expenses, let alone tuition?
The sad truth is that even if I didn't travel, and worked both summers remaining to me, I still wouldn't have enough credit to complete my education. So here's my logic: if I'm already screwed, I might as well go all out. Either way, I'm going to have to be creative to stay afloat. Maybe I'll tend a bar on the weekends and sleep on friends' couches. All this while working crazy hours during clerkship. I may be insane. But I really want to do go on this adventure, despite the consequences. Someone wise (or incredibly stupid) once said: "Leap and the net will appear". Here's to hoping it's true.
This picture was taken in the mountains of Puerto Rico in the summer of 1999 (when I still had hair!). The summer I spent doing tropical neuroethology in San Juan, Puerto Rico remains one of the highlights of my life, and reminds me why I want to travel and experience the world.
Such an adventure is not without its perils. There is the risk of having an accident or succumbing to some tropical disease. There is also the chance of being robbed or worse. But such things can happen anywhere. I will not live my life in fear. (Although I won't deny that sometimes I find the prospect of riding such a vast distance alone more scary than exciting.)
Planning such a trip normally takes over a year. I have less than 5 months. It will be extremely challenging to pull it off. I need to choose a motorcycle. I need to decide what gear to bring. I need to check to see what paperwork will be required. I need to learn how to fix a motorbike in the field. It would be nice to learn how to speak Spanish too.
One of the ironies of life is that when you're young and have the time and energy to explore the world, you don't have the money; and when you're old and have the money, you don't have the time or freedom. How many people could escape their career and family obligations for 3 months to travel the world? I have the desire and the time, but if I choose to use my line of credit to travel instead of spending the summer earning money doing a research project (which is arguably the sensible thing to do both financially and in terms of my long-term career prospects), I will run out of credit well before I finish my 4 year program. Is it reckless to knowingly put myself in a position where I won't have enough money in the future for daily living expenses, let alone tuition?
The sad truth is that even if I didn't travel, and worked both summers remaining to me, I still wouldn't have enough credit to complete my education. So here's my logic: if I'm already screwed, I might as well go all out. Either way, I'm going to have to be creative to stay afloat. Maybe I'll tend a bar on the weekends and sleep on friends' couches. All this while working crazy hours during clerkship. I may be insane. But I really want to do go on this adventure, despite the consequences. Someone wise (or incredibly stupid) once said: "Leap and the net will appear". Here's to hoping it's true.
This picture was taken in the mountains of Puerto Rico in the summer of 1999 (when I still had hair!). The summer I spent doing tropical neuroethology in San Juan, Puerto Rico remains one of the highlights of my life, and reminds me why I want to travel and experience the world.
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