Taking Chances

The road goes ever on an on, down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the road has gone, and I must follow if I can, pursuing it with eager feet, until it joins some larger way where many paths and errands meet. And wither then, I cannot say. – J.R.R. Tolkien


I turn 29 at the end of the month. Of those 29 years, perhaps the biggest risk I have ever taken was moving to Brisbane to re-start my undergraduate career at the University of Queensland. It is not that exciting given what some of my contemporaries from high school are doing. Ultimately, I have enjoyed what I am doing.

Perhaps the question you are asking now is why use the Tolkien quote if I am only talking about a move of less than 200kms. I am using the Tolkien quote because my next move is substantially further.

On 19 August 2010 I board a plane here in Brisbane and after two stopovers, one in Singapore and one in Abu Dhabi, I will touch down in London on 20 August 2010. After a week somewhere in London, my cousin and I fly to Amman in Jordan and start our twenty-eight day tour of Jordan, Syria and Egypt on 29 August 2010.

I cannot express here strongly enough how excited I am to know I will be going to places I have dreamt of since I was a kid. Mt Sinai. Damascus. Lebanon. Petra. Cairo. Luxor. Abu Simbel. The Pyramids. The Sphinx. The Valley of the Kings. The Valley of the Queens. Tutankhamen’s Tomb. The Nile. To know that I am crossing the boundaries of ancient civilisations like Mesopotamia and Babylon is incredible to my mind.

Of course, there is equal excitement for the sites around the UK but for now, I have to deny them to myself or else I will never finish my Masters thesis.

And so, in 165 days I will bid family, friends and Australia a fond farewell and see where the road leads me.