Day 1 of 181

Well its here. January 3rd. And I am starting a blog to document it all, the next 181 days of my life. In the scheme of my whole life 181 days is a blink of an eye, but in terms of memorable experiences these next 6 months will be some of the days and memories I will remember most in my life. But I really dont know.

Ok so we begin, a cool crisp winter day. Wulipants was running away from me as I tried to hug her goodbye and my parents were waiting patiently by the door as I made my last minute run around the house to make sure I had everything that I could need and fit in my backpack. The closer we got to the airport the more nervous I got. I am not saying that I'm a super unusual person for travelling around the world and taking a gap year, but Im still only 18 years old and 6 months is a long time to travel so in that way it did feel pretty daunting. Needless to say I was nervous but also excited to finally leave and see the world on my own terms. As we neared the escalators to TSA I turned to say a "see you later" to my parents. Im just gonna derail a minute and take a few lines to say something to my truly amazing parents. If you're reading this, which I'm sure you are, I want you to know that I couldn't have done this without you guys. You are the ones that inspire me to always take advantage of every opportunity that is presented to me and the greatest opportunity is to travel. You have taught me to be open minded, resilient, hard working, and curious. I am forever thankful for both of you and want you to know that it kills me that you cant be with me because you guys are my favorite travelling partners. Ok back to day 1. After wishing safe travels and shedding a few tears after our goodbyes I realized I was all by myself. 

I have learned quite quickly that you are never alone. As soon as I passed security I sat down to put my shoes on and was joined by a 7 year old who asked about where I was going and why and who I was with. Yes she was seven, but she showed me that I could make friends with pretty much anyone. I left to head to gate D5 feeling pretty good. Travelling solo was gonna be ok.  

I am now well into my first day on the road and so far more ups than downs (literally all San Francisco is is just one giant ass hill).  The ups began last night when I befriended my bunk mate and ate free scones in the kitchen with some other various people in the hostel kitchen. I also had a lovely bike ride through the piers and across Golden Gate bridge to Saulsalito where I later took the ferry back across to San Francisco. The downs were somewhat minor and more embarrassing, starting with my chain falling off in the middle of a rather steep hill resulting in furious honking from the cars behind me and buying the wrong sim card for my camera . Overall, solid first day. San Francisco is a great city full of diversity and quirks. I cant wait to see what the next 180 days have in store. Cheers to the start of an interesting and quirky adventure.

P.S. Steven Lane please ignore the large grammatical errors in this blog.