The Trip: Where I've Been and Where I'm Going

May 9, 2013
On a plane over some ocean, flying to some country.

The plan:

I’ve been traveling from The Navajo Reservation in Shiprock, New Mexico to eventually reach the Cook Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Along the way I have stopped in Bay City, Texas, New Orleans, and my home in Tallahassee, Florida. I’ve flown out of Jacksonville to my other home in Boston to meet Maryclaire and we’ll go to London. Then we’ll head to Shenzhen, China via Hong Kong to teach Family Medicine.

As a break we’ll take a week in Hong Kong and then to Beijing to see the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, Tienaman Square and the many, many tourist traps sprung on unsuspecting Westerners in Beijing.

Maryclaire will return to Boston and I’ll continue on to Sydney, Australia for a week, bounce off of New Zealand, and then finally land at the island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands to meet my ship, the Barque Picton Castle, her Captain, and crew for 3 months in the South Pacific as the Medical Officer.

When I’m done I’ll arrive in LA, see some friends in California, and take a train or bus the rest of the way back to Boston. Then we’ll move more permanently to Asheville, North Carolina, my third home.

Around the World in a few days. Planes, Trains, Automobiles, Land, Sea, and Air.

Life is awesome.

Grateful

Back in my hotel in Hong Kong, listening to the new Daft Punk album, finishing a bottle of Jonny Walker Black Label (in the morning), and planning my departure for Australia in 4 hours.

My life is awesome: Be a family doctor, deliver babies, teach, do good things.

Being a Family Physician has allowed me to travel since the first year of medical school- the desire to care for all ages, all people, all around the world- has opened incredible doors for me. I’ve also been blessed with an OK eye for photography, and some idea of how English grammar works.

I hope the 3 of you who are reading this get excited about whatever it is in your life you want to do, whatever that is. For me a year ago I wanted to do this- travel the world, be a doctor, make photographs, and tell people about the things I see every day.

I do it every day, and I couldn’t be happier. All I did was say “I want to do this, and am willing to work to make it happen”.

In months it was happening, and the World was open. I had love and help from my adopted family, which helped to give me the time to do it, and that made it possible.

I’m a lucky duck, and I recognize it every day.

Do what you love, do it today.

-A

Hong Kong.

The Buddha’s Birthday

To celebrate the Buddha’s Birthday we visited the Tian Tan Buddha, the largest in the world (for now), and Po Lin Mon monastery on a foggy afternoon on the mountain.