The Great Adventure: Episode 7

The clock is ticking. It is now less than two weeks until I fly to Africa.

People have asked me if I am excited/nervous about the upcoming trip. The truth of the matter is that I am looking forward to the experience but I am experiencing none of the nervousness I used to suffer through when I did a lot of business travel. I don't really know why this is, except for the fact that I have no concrete expectations for the trip apart from just "being".

I know that sounds a bit odd, but that is all I really want to do for the next two months. I guess I do have a notion of what I mean by "being": I want to experience life without any distractions; I want to interact with people and experience a different culture; and I want to spend some time reconnecting with who I am as a person.

I know it sounds terribly clichéd, but I sort of lost touch with the real me. I spent 15 years building a career with an organization only to discover that the title on the business cards did not match the person I was (or the person I used to be). It sounds like I am going through a mid-life crisis -- and maybe I am -- but somehow I lost the real me during the six years I was a vice president. I lost that person and I want to get him back. Or at least, I want to get a version of him back.

I suppose working in an African orphanage for two months is a bit of an extreme way of "finding myself" (if you will permit me to use that horrid phrase) but I don't like cars enough to splurge on an expensive sports car and I am not yet brave enough to try sky diving. I guess I opted for the safe route. Or, perhaps, I chose Africa because I feel a need to go back to where human life began.

I don't really know and, truth be told, I don't really care. I am looking forward to spending the next two months under African skies.