1/26/2005: Closing remarks

It's almost like I expected time to stop for me when I left and for it to resume normally when I returned. I should have known better. I returned to find that time had in fact gone on without me, and to see that January was almost over. However, despite the fact that time flies whether or not you're having fun (which I was, just to clarify), there are some things that last forever. Take Rome for example -- it's not called The Eternal City for nothing. It's been around for a while. Consider the history there -- the Colosseum, the Forum. Pompeii as well -- it's been nearly 2,000 years since Vesuvius exploded, and it is still the subject of archeological digs and seemingly endless History Channel and Discovery Channel documentaries and movies (see Pompeii: The Last Day on the Discovery Channel on January 30). We are still in the process of learning about these places and what went on in them. Just last week, previously unknown Da Vinci drawings were uncovered in Florence. How cool to have been there just before the discovery, although I wish we could have actually been there for it. There are still so many things to see and know about this world, and so many things that we don't even realize that we don't know about them because they have been hidden away for so long. Perhaps discovery is half the journey of life -- self-discovery, achieved maybe through discovery of other things that before one could not have even imagined or even tried to comprehend. Maybe they are two separate, unrelated things. At any rate, both are important. Traveling can be an extremely rewarding, if tiring and at times difficult, experience. You will learn and realize a lot that you never knew, and a lot that will interest you that you never thought you could possibly care about. I would encourage you to travel as much as possible. Who knows what you might find in that great big world out there?