Rebirth

It's 45°F and misting--a typical winter day in San Antonio. Here, the seasons' cycle doesn't announce its progress in terms as blustery as other places I've called home. But a new year has begun just the same. Ready or not.

I don't feel ready.

Sure, I've written up a tidy list of New Year's travel resolutions, spent some quality holiday time with family, even given the blog a makeover. But what comes next is still shading my perspective with an uncertain ominousness.

Maybe it's only the usual pre-departure anxiety, that feeling of plunging into the unknown. Or maybe it's the fact that in three days I'll be arriving in the city where my family was robbed within the second hour of their visit. Or, most likely, I'm worried about trying something new--about volunteering.

2009 is my volunteer year. I start out in Cochabamba, Bolivia, working through Sustainable Bolivia in the area of green energy and economic development. Further plans are contingent on that experience, but I hope to move down to Patagonia sometime in the summer to participate in an indigenous language preservation project.

In many ways--most, perhaps--I don't know what I'm doing. I have no experience with nonprofits. I've never touched a solar panel. My Spanish is awkwardly passable, at best; my Quechua and Mapuche, nonexistent.

But it's a new year. A time to start over. A chance for rebirth and renewal--in my travels, my career, my life. I may not feel ready, but it's coming nonetheless.

Welcome to WayWorded, 2009.