I had the coolest time today.

On the flight to Sydney I had the privilege of meeting an interesting young man named Chris.
The first person to coin the phrase, " Youth is wasted on the wrong people." was not talking about Chris.

Chris sat next to me on the flight over to Sydney. I recognized the US accent, which at this point I am beginning to miss more than I thought I would.

In the next several hours I came to discover that Chris has taken the opportunity to travel around the world, with no particular destinations in mind and no particular time-frame. He is spending the night in Sydney before going on to Singapore.

How many of us wish we had the carefree spirit it would take to make such a huge leap of faith?

Anyone who has ever traveled with me before knows that I am the sort who keeps to my own business and really don't much want to know about the person sitting next to me- save that they have bathed within the past week. But Chris has an infectious and friendly demeanor that led me to actually want to hear what he had to say. I found myself greatly admiring-as I said to him -the sense of adventure it would take to leave a relatively secure position in order to see the world and travel unencumbered. We ended up sharing a shuttle into town and continuing our conversation into dinner (a late dinner by my standard). I hope the conversation was half as exciting for him.

The point of my even mentioning Chris is that meeting this interesting sort of person demonstrates exactly the kind of thing that can happen on any journey- no matter how brief.
Chris shared his travel blog information with me. I hope to follow him for a bit and see where his adventures take him.

I hope his story - even as briefly shared as it is in this spot- encourages others to take the risk and live life to the full.