11 More Days in St. Martin

"It goes on and on and on and ooooh!" That's Journey, and that's what's playing on the stereo right now. I'm sitting outside at the 'Pad', Broadreach's little base in Anse Marcel, St Martin. Tonight I'll sleep in an army cot in the 'Loft', Broadreach's idea of staff accommodation. It would not be possible to describe this summer in one entry. I was just re-reading some old posts and realized that yes, my dreams have in fact manifested themselves in ways that I could never have imagined. I've sailed over 1000 miles this summer, spent 48 hours at sea, made lifelong friends from all over the world and have learned more about life and myself than I could have ever imagined or expected. I'll be gone in 11 days. It's going to be exceedingly weird being back in the 'real' world. I haven't had an indoor shower in over two months. Nor have I slept in a bed. I haven't even slept with a real pillow; I've been using my fleece rolled up into a makeshift headrest. But life in this environment is truly living. Living in the most real sense of the word. Time literally has ceased to exist, the days of the week no longer matter, nor does the date. It's just life, in it's simplest, most uncomfortably yet simultaneously enjoyable state. Have I changed? Undoubtedly. Will my life be different from now on? I don't know. I'll return home, and most likely things will go back to normal the minute I set foot on American soil. Life is funny like that...yet deep down I have changed, I know it. As another stage of my life begins, with the great unknown beckoning, I come back to the same question I ask myself in each of these situations...where will I be in a year and what dreams will have manifested themselves by then? The fun part is living it.