This is a journal entry I wrote back in August 2004. At the time, the trip was only supposed to be 6 months long because I had plans to go to grad school in the fall of 2005 instead of 2006. We were also starting in Southeast Asia and ending in South America, whereas now we’re starting in South America.

You know that feeling you get on a roller coaster? The feeling when you can’t catch your breath and you open your mouth to speak (or scream), but nothing comes out?

For the past few days, I’ve had that feeling.

Hawaii, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma…

And every time I think of our trip I’m overwhelmed with that feeling.

…Turkey, Egypt, Greece, Italy, France, Spain, Morocco, Portugal…

It’s strangely exhilarating to have this feeling while just sitting at my desk. To feel my chest and my throat tightened, but not in a stressful way, just in an extremely excited way.

…Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands….

We have just a bit over 5 months before I say goodbye to my friends, to my family, to my cat. Just a bit over 5 months until everything goes into storage, final bills are paid, and my notice is turned in.

It’s just a bit over 5 months until my toes will touch the sand of Hawaii for the first time…before I leave our continent for the first time…before I experience things that I’ve never even dreamed of before.

I keep imagining how this feeling is only going to grow and grow over the next few months. It gets stronger with every travel blog I read and every day dream I have. It gets stronger still when a part of me secretly wishes I don’t get into grad school this time around so we can stay out for 12 months instead of 6 months. And I imagine it will be completely overwhelming in a delicious sort of way come December and January when I will write “only 2 months” and “only 1 month” until we leave.

I wonder if I’ll feel it with every new country we visit? I wonder if I’ll feel it, several years from now, when we’re planning our 2nd round-the-world trip? If not, I want to remember it now because it really is rather wonderful.