Blog Title

I think today is as good a time as any to explain the title of this blog. If you are not aware, I am away from my usual school, DePauw University. I am studying in Greece this semester at College Year in Athens. I decided to create this blog so I wouldn't have constant e-mails asking me how things are going and where I have been. It was a convenient way to let everybody know what I am up to and how I am doing. It is also a good way to chronicle my trip. Therefore, the obvious reason for the title arises. I am traveling from home to a new place. I have traveled to Greece and will be in this country for the next three months, for a total of four months. The number 21 was to indicate that at the start of this blog I am 21 years old. People look forward to age 21 as a milestone. Alcohol is legal in the US. Insurance rates go down. You are no longer in that awkward middle ground between 18 and 21. In many ways, turning 21 fells like truly entering young adulthood from the awkward teenage adult stage. As the age 21 was a turning point, so is this trip. When a student studies in a foreign country for a semester, they change. I have seen people come back looking very different in imperceptable ways. So I chose the title to indicate that I start this blog at a turning point of my life. Doubtlessly at this time, I have no clue how big this turning point could turn out to be.

My second underlying reason for choosing the title is slightly different. I wish to be able to use this blog in the future, beyond my trip in Greece. I needed to choose a title which would reflect to the best of my ability at the moment something relevant to my life in the future. Traveler fit this, because I don't stop traveling just because I go home. People grow and change through their lives. Just looking back at my 21 years of life I can see how much of a journey it has already been. I look ahead to the next 70 to 80 and realize that there is so much of a journey left. In that time, I will graduate from college and seminary, be ordained, get married, have kids, pastor churches, have trouble, joy, pain, love, retirement, rest, illnesses, and loss. How much further do I have to travel, in stages of life that I cannot even fathom? While this blog will not go for the next 70 or 80 years, I hope for it to continue for some time. Therefore, I chose the name traveler. Not just because I traveled to Greece, but because I have quite a ways to travel in my life. Beyond just travelling in my life, I also have some traveling to do in my call. I am called to be a pastor, but calls tend to develop as time goes on. I don't know where God will lead me, and I have chosen traveler to say that I will travel wherever that is.

So I am a traveler, and will continue to be. What is the point if I stop traveling, stop growing and exploring and learning? Now you read about me traveling in Greece, when I get back...we'll see.