The Destination is Worth the Journey

Go back to that time in your life when you were starting your first day of high school. Remember how excited you were? Remember how nervous you were? You were filled with tons of different emotions during those days because it was a new place, with new people, in a new environment. It was a long journey to get to that point. After the glory days of red rover on the elementary school jungle gym and the dark days of the early teens, you had finally made it. You were about to be the big boy or girl on campus, or a "legend" as the Aussies call it. In your mind, the destination was worth the journey.

I've had many different destinations in my life, with many long journeys to get there. And now, here I am on another one. I find myself in an unfamiliar and faraway land where sweet tea isn't a thing and the biggest thing on Saturday's is rugby or surfing. My new journey has brought me to Sydney, Australia, located in the Australian state of New South Wales. If I'm being honest, I never thought a journey would take me to this specific place. I always had a passion and desire to experience overseas travel, but I always thought it would lead to some place in Europe. I never really had any thoughts on coming to Australia or the region itself. To me, it was a faraway land in an unfamiliar place with a country that I really did not know anything about.

After a week of learning more about the history of The Land Down Under, I find some parallels of my journey with that of Captain James Cook, the founder of New South Wales. While Cook was exploring Newfoundland and Quebec in the late 1750's, I'm sure that "The Great Southern Land" was the last thing on his mind. At this time, the English didn't know for sure if the future continent of Australia existed. But as fate would have it, the English sent Cook on a mission to find the southern continent.

The journey was long. The journey was hard. In fact, Cook had no idea what he would even find there. But he did find something there. He found a land that would one day become one of the seven continents and one of the largest countries in the world. If you had to ask Captain Cook today, I would think that he would say the destination is worth the journey.

And so here I am. I didn't expect to be here, and I didn't have many expectations or knowledge of Australia in the first place. But, here I am. I've spent a week exploring some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, learning about history and culture, and getting to meet some really amazing people.  And now I can say with full confidence that so far, the destination is worth the journey.