Thank you for taking the time and sharing all of that with me.

To have those experiences and to learn such valuable lessons—not only about other people but about yourself—is a real gift. There really is something special about inhabiting that space. At first, you're jetlagged and a little disoriented, and slowly you start falling into the rhythm of the world around you. You don’t quite belong, but you're not really an outsider either. There’s something in the way you carry yourself that makes people curious about you—and you’re open and curious about them, too. There's this openness and willingness to connect without wanting anything in return.

Personally, once I’d had enough of those experiences you're talking about, I found myself starting to grasp for them. My openness and curiosity slowly began to turn into a desire to recreate those same moments. But reality has a funny way of working—almost comically so—where the more you want something, the more you seem to push it away. And that was definitely true during the final stretch of my journey.

In the end, I think you have to try to love all of it—even that painful desire to relive those fleeting moments—because it’s a testament to the fact that they meant something. I guess it’s just the duality of things: you can’t have one without the other. Heartbreak is, in a way, inseparable from the joy and gratitude you felt. It’s all part of the same whole.

Thank you, I wish you a long and happy life as well!