Bon Vivant
A blog about exploration, connection, and reflection.
Excerpts from the Blog
Exploration
“Our cluster of tents was nestled between the dunes. Sand blew fast & hard in our faces as we bundled into shemaghs. A scarab beetle crawled across my path as I took off my sandals, and for the first time in my life I walked barefoot on non-beach sand.”
— Morocco Trek
“Nerves settled by the lager, I felt free to wander, first with my eyes and then with my feet. I weaved through the market, soaking in the symphonic frenzy of so many stalls and people jam-packed together. The heavy air, filled as it was with sounds of Spanish, oppressed me with a feeling of alienation — in the middle yet unable to understand what’s around. That said, I felt comforted by the palpable atmosphere of languor, which this market shared with so many other public places around the world enjoying Saturday afternoons of their own.”
— Buenos Aires
Connection
“From the start to the end it did feel like a family affair — even for a friend of a friend like me. You’d think it’d be awkward going to stay with people you’d never met, or that you’d be relieved to get your alone time from them. But no, they made me feel so comfortable, like I could have stayed indefinitely. I was sad to leave.”
— Florence, Alabama
“It all felt a bit unreal to me. Going on a New Year’s Eve vacation to Mexico with a girl I’d met not even two months ago. Could this really be? We weren’t even officially dating. Part of me worried some hiccup would derail the trip. And if not, would we get along? Spending a week all alone, in a foreign country, possibly faced with stressful situations — would we like each other afterwards?
Who could know. We booked the trip anyway.”
— Tides of Jalisco
Reflection
“What’s this all to say? Whatever I am — whether a Southerner or a Chicagoain or a Mainer or a New Yorker or an Angeleno — or simply an American — there’s no place like home. But my home isn’t in just one place. It’s spread out, much as since my mom died I’ve spread out my affections, my conversations, my confessions. For some, the long road never ends. And perhaps it shouldn’t.”
— Trip Trans America, Final Part
“The whole fall had been a neverending social frenzy, and I tried my best to keep push push pushing that into the winter, to Paris. But the world pushed back… Some things you can’t control, such as whether you’ll feel good in the morning, where you’ll be tomorrow or next week, when you’ll see someone next. It’s not up to us to control, only to push — to keep asking for, to keep planning for the best. Someday it might actually happen.”
— Canadian Friction
