It's Always Sunny In Saigon...

Going back to Vietnam feels like destiny. It may be that I attended an info session for this program I’m with, back in 2004; an adventure cut short; or simply the desire to be back in a place that reverberated in every nerve of my body…Regardless, there’s a strong feeling that draws me back and I’m eager to dig deeper into a culture and an experience that, seven years ago, sparked something that is essential to who I am supposed to be in this lifetime. During college, studying abroad in Ho Chi Minh City was an experience that changed me in a way I can almost not explain. It was an awakening to life lived without pretense. So far and so foreign brought into focus what being a human on this great big planet is really all about: learning, discovering, feeling, seeing, talking, sharing. It’s easy to forget the infinitely interesting world that surrounds us when we’re stuck in our everyday routines. The creature comforts we all get caught up in fall by the wayside in a place where you sweat through your shirt by 8am, where the average salary is $100 (a year) and where norms and expectations are on a completely different scale from what you’re used to. I’m not sure where this journey will take me, but I have the bag on my back, my laptop, and the desire to take it all in. There’s not much more you can ask for in life than to wake up excited to start each day and I’m going to ride that wave for as long as it will carry me.