And now for something completely different...

So it ends up that we didn't listen to Monty Python at all while we were out on the ocean, but that's still one of my favorite quotes from Flying Circus. I'll be posting a ton on here about the race and all sorts of fun things, but for now, here's a post that I threw together a few days ago. I'm back. Enjoy :).

As I write this, I am sitting next to the women’s restroom (because it’s one of the few places I can find a plug for the depleted battery in my laptop) outside of Gate B81 in Houston’s Bush International waiting for my flight to Phoenix. It is 2:26 p.m. local time, and 20:26 GMT. Less than a week ago, I was happily rowing along at this time, enjoying the cooler temperatures that the setting sun brought to the ocean on the 8-10 shift. In a matter of 5 days, my life has been completely transformed from that of dreaming of nothing but cheeseburgers and white sheets to being thrust back in the land of fresh beef and bedclothes and wishing like hell to be back out on that ocean wave. In those last fleeting days, the ocean reminded us that nature always wins, whipping the waves into splashy piles of foam and turning the cabin and morale onboard into a soggy, crabby mess. Being on land does not diminish those feelings of discomfort any, but the land has discomforts of its own: no less, only different - than those on the water.

I know that for the next few weeks, as I watch the rest of the fleet come into Antigua, I will be wishing that I was back out there, away from the discomforts that life on land always brings. Just as it was on the Atlantic, I’ll need to keep my morale high to get me through these coming weeks as I adjust to solid ground and concrete agendas. On the ocean, the easiest way to boost morale was to break up the monotony and find something different. The same subtle swell, the same meals, the same greetings of “How you doing, dude?” every shift could get monotonous if – and only if – you let it. The simple pleasure of watching dorada flit in and out of the boat’s shadow, switching a Clif Bar for a pack of Oreo’s, or dressing up as Indians was enough to keep life fresh and interesting. A big part of what I will take back from this trip is just that: to keep life different and interesting. Of course I have long term goals of finishing my PhD, but while I am finishing it I plan to keep on adventuring, and afterwards, the sky is the limit. Interlaced with the overall goal of finishing my PhD within the next few years are additional priorities of maintaining a close relationship with my family, competing in adventure races, exploring all of the natural beauty that the western part of the U.S. has to offer, and finding a guy out there that shares my passions and can keep up with my next adventure (my friends – thanks Kel! - say that the only guy that’s suited for me anymore is Indiana Jones, so if anyone has his number, please feel free to pass it on and let him know I’m interested). No matter what happens in the next couple of years before I start to pursue the next major adventure, I plan to keep it interesting.

So, what about those next adventures? I know my family is probably reading this blog with bated breath, but fear not, I don’t have any MAJOR ones in the works just yet. The ocean was incredible this year – so much fun, a great new experience with three amazing teammates, a finish to a dream, millions of memories, and a new world record. But already, I am thinking ahead to the new adventures that I want to accomplish. Someday I may eat my words, but for this segment of my life, I am done with rowing oceans. I would happily and eagerly recommend the experience to anyone, but I have too many new and different adventures that I want to get started on to continue rowing the oceans in the next few years. The ocean rowing community is a tight knit group that I now feel fully indoctrinated into having rowed the full thing unsupported this time, but I think that one of the things that makes us special is not the fact that we row oceans, but the fact that we are all a very special breed of adventurers. One cannot row an ocean and not come back with a full respect for nature, God, and the world around us, and that childlike acceptance of the beauty and freedom of the ocean has us yearning for more. Some of us go on to row additional oceans, and others of us continue on to mountains, the North Pole, charity work in Costa Rica, or as many different adventures as there are ocean rowers. For me, life has to be ever changing to be exciting. A stagnant, stable life holds about as much excitement for me as a stagnant pool filled with pond scum. I need the changing tides and crashing waves, the ups, the downs, and the brilliant sunsets beckoning me to unknown horizons. Not to say that ocean rowing is EVER boring, but I am ready for something new, and I want to know that when my time on this planet is through, I have learned and grown and loved and lived all that I can in as many walks of life as I can. I think my sister put it best. As we were sitting down to dinner on my return, there was a segment on the news about the recent avalanches that have taken the lives of several people within the past few weeks. She commented that avalanches were one of the reasons she was apprehensive of mountains. I had first assumed that she was talking in reference to an upcoming snowboarding trip, but she then corrected me saying that she was concerned because she figured that mountain climbing adventures were next on my list. My sister knows me as well as I know myself and I’ve always been fascinated with mountains…

A lot of people have problems finding a passion to pursue in life. My problem is quite the opposite, my problem is trying to find a way to fit all of those passions into some sort of plan that allows me to accomplish as much as I can in the limited time that I have here on this planet. A million things and different lifestyles interest me. I love what I do in the lab – helping to find a vaccine to a disease that is ravaging the developing world. But I am just as happy sitting two feet off of a two story wave in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I would also be just as happy building medical centers in Africa. Or cruising the Pacific on a 40’ sailboat. Or raising a family. Or working ski lifts in New Zealand. Or teaching schoolchildren in Antigua. Or becoming a sponsored adventure racer. Or freelancing around the world. Or a lot of things.

When I got back from Antigua, I looked up at the walls of my room at home in Indiana, thinking back to memories from my childhood. Trophies from my basketball and cross country days to pictures of my friends in Israel to posters of Purdue Crew adorn my dressers and walls. It makes me feel truly blessed to have been a part of so many different adventures thus far in my 24 years on this planet, and I can’t help but wonder where life will take me in the coming years. I have a feeling that no matter what it is, though, it will be something completely different.

Stay tuned for lots of stories, pictures, and insights into life on an ocean rowing boat and what it's like to be back on terra firma.