Reason to Dream

So, here we are. Another chapter begins, and I am hoping that you will venture down the pathway that this chapter represents.

As I wrote during my time in Inuvik, it is very difficult to close a chapter of your life that is progressing so nicely, but at the same time, it is thrilling in the best sense of the word. Back then, I was leaving the unique Inuvik to come back to Waterloo, and finish my last year of University. Now, I have completed that chapter as well, and I am entering a new and very different one. I have completed my formal university education! Throughout university I learned about myself, and the intricate environment in which humans dwell. My eyes were opened, wide, to the extraordinary variety of life as I experienced new things. Now, my passion for the natural world that has been simmering throughout my life is at a rolling boil. I am so excited to exude this passion during the coming months. "Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings end" and the end to university that I am experiencing now, pushes me to look into the future: the unpredictable, the scary, the thrilling, the intriguing. Although it only might exist, the world has told me I should have a plan, and a plan I do have.

In just one short week I will be hopping on a Greyhound, with my panniers packed, and my beautiful touring bike in a sad confined box. When I arrive in Calgary, I will put this beauty back together (a process I have yet to learn...) and I will meet the 13 other people that I will be spending all of my time with over the following two months, on an Otesha Cycling and Preforming Tour. And during these two months as I bicycle from Calgary to Vancouver, I will spread a message about how to live more sustainably: How to reflect on your needs; How to respect your fellow human brothers and sisters by selecting socially just options to consumerism; How to conserve energy and water, a luxury that so many go without; How to avoid the influence that our label-ridden society so negatively forces upon us; How to eat food with awareness and knowledge of it's source; How to save our planet, one very small action at a time.

Every single one of us has the ability to remove our blinders, showing the world the many problems that are afflicting the world as a result of our over consumptive society. You can also hold up the mirror, and recognize the role that YOU play in creating many of these problems. You, and I, can empower others, showing that just as our actions have the potential to do harm, they also have the potential to do incredible good. And we will ACT. There are innumerable ideas for fun, easy, world changing actions that anyone can take, to work towards a healthful world. [Thank you Otesha, for the well thought out words in this paragraph].

So come along with me this summer, and learn with me as I experience the difficulties and joys of long distance cycling, the excitement of empowering others, and the thrill of travelling abroad. I leave from Toronto on April 25. I will cycle and preform from May 1 until June 25. I will explore the west coast, and meet up with my sister to broaden my worldview and experience new cultures in Southeast Asia. All the while, I will dream, reflect, inspire, and realize that I can be the change...