Sometimes they don´t. Sometimes they do.

A year ago today, I very tearfully boarded a plane and left New York City to begin an adventure of epic proportions. (I ended up back in NYC 4 months later for a spell, but who´s counting?)

6 months prior, I called my parents to tell them I just quit my job and would be taking time off to travel solo in Central and South America. You might imagine how they reacted. Mixed feelings. But not a day has gone by in the last 18 months (save last 29 years) when they didn´t support me. In fact, I think my travels have opened their minds, that I´ve taught them things through sharing my experiences. They don´t always understand me, but they always stand behind me-

One thing I remember vividly is the conversation I had over and over and over again with my dad. It went something like this:

Dad - Ok, tell me the plan again.
Me - Dad, I know it´s hard, but there is no plan.
Dad - And who are you going to go with?
Me -  Dad, I´m going solo. I´ll be fine, I´ll meet plenty of people.
Dad - Let´s just hope you meet the right kind of people.
Me - Yes, Dad, let´s hope so.

It continued on like that. And we literally had the same conversation once a week for months. And I understood that he needed to keep having that conversation, and that he would back me up whatever I did, but that it was his right as my parent to worry and freak out and ask those questions.

I received this email from him the other day. What a difference a year makes!

Reading a Readers digest article and thought you'd enjoy
From writer Paul theroux
Who wrote
Enlightenments from lives on the road

1. Leave home
2. Go alone
3. Travel light
4. Bring a map
5. Go by land
6. Walk across a national frontier
7. Keep a journal
8. Read a novel that has no relation to the place you're in
9. No cell phone
10. Make a friend
Upon reflection , you get an A+
Love Dad
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

To both of my parents. Even though you don´t always understand me, thank you for always giving me the room to grow and figure it out myself and for backing me up in the end even though it´s not always clear that there´s a method to my madness.