Confronting this idea through conversations with others or contemplations on my mind when it wanders away from me, something seems to be pulling me towards understanding it. In a way, like I do, to better articulate and apply it. So I begin.

As I endeavor to improve my writing abilities, it becomes more apparent that it's just as important to improve myself. As my writing prowess continues to grow, I intend that my spirit does as well.

Connection in its purest form involves some level of vulnerability. It enhances the quality of our lives when done right, and the utility of its presence, when maintained in a healthy form, is untold. When we lack the receptivity to understand and share who we are, forming the close bonds that sustain us across a lifetime becomes very difficult.

At many points in life, I was rash, impulsive, and refused to listen to reason, as we tend to be when we are young and lack experience. Stubborn, and yet, I haven't quite outgrown that trait. I doubt I ever will.

In a practical sense, I comprehend hope. Although, I can't help but wonder if maybe there's more to it than just the concept alone to grasp. Perhaps the nature of it is where that answer lies.

It challenges me constantly to show proof of my progression past the perpetual need to hear it out. It's such an insistent voice. So sharp and distinct yet unfamiliar, it knows me well, or so it says.

It passes me by yet promptly arrives again then I have it to look forward to invariably. That sentiment didn’t quite mean much to me before. Maybe still, in some ways, it doesn’t, although as I grow, I begin to understand it a bit better each day.

When I was younger, I thought I had a firmer grasp of what I was contemplating than I realized. I wasn't fully aware of how my thoughts affected various areas of my life, such as my behavior, rectitude, and even my progression toward the goals I had set myself to accomplish.

Writing for me has always felt like a release, a way in which I find peace in times when my mind seems at its most turbulent or when the things around me are.

There I was stranded in a section of a city that I did not know, alone, with a limited amount of cash in hand and no credit card, my friends gone, no metro access and, at the time, very little confidence in my ability to speak and understand the Spanish language.

“The only way to truly understand a city you must lose yourself within it.” I find myself saying this more and more for just about every place that I travel to no matter where in the world it happens to be but little do most people know where that saying originated.

Planning a trip abroad can be a very stressful process of planning, booking, and researching and that is often times well before you even secure a plane ticket. The last thing that you want to happen is to go someplace and not be able to relax, take in the scenery or enjoy yourself at all when you do.

At times it seems a luxury that most people cannot afford as we want to. On the other hand, though it is one that many more people believe isn’t really necessary if you may already live in a place that you enjoy. The question then becomes why do I feel the need to go anywhere else when where I am is perfect?