I can see the coastline.
I am leaving. Thank God. I am 33,000 feet above the earth and the dude next to me, who is wearing a ‘Dalton, GA’ souvenir t-shirt, just got a phone call on his odd-looking cell phone. He pressed a button and sent the call to voice mail and went back to sleep. I had no idea you get calls on international flights.
A round woman in a wool, red sweater, and face mask just walked by him and touched his shoulder. Maybe his mom, maybe a friend, maybe an international drug dealer.
I am drinking red wine in a can. Not bad. I was bumped up to first class which is not a regular occurrence for me. I have traveled to over 100 countries over the past 30 years and been in first class three times. Usually, I am in the middle seat eating soggy chicken.
Anyway, I am halfway to El Salvador.
When I graduated from college, I bought a round-trip ticket to Costa Rica with my buddy Billy. It cost $300 and our plan was to live and work in Costa Rica for the summer. I had only been on an airplane a couple of times. I thought I should explore the world before getting a real job. Obviously, I never got a real job. Which is probably why I have only flown first class three times.
Onward…
Billy and I never got a job in Costa Rica but we did make our way to every country in Central America. We ate rice and beans, stayed in places homeless people would turn down, and spent hundreds of hours on shitty buses. I got crabs from dirty bed sheets, drank banana shakes every morning, and caught a sloth. He took naked pictures everywhere, had diarrhea for 2 months, and got attacked by a dolphin.
We never made our return flight and had to take a train across Mexico to the US border. We crossed the border by foot in Juarez and then took a Greyhound bus from Texas to Alabama. Which do you think was worse, the train across the desert in Mexico or the Greyhound bus?
Both.
Anyway, I am headed to El Salvador for five days. No agenda, no checked luggage, no idea.
One of my biggest struggles in life is connecting with people. I get nervous every time I talk to people. I got a haircut yesterday and got nervous talking to the hair-cutting dude. I got nervous talking to my Uber driver this morning. No idea why.
So, this week, I will force myself to talk to strangers.
And write a book. And get a tattoo. And try to interview a gang leader. And swim in the ocean. And take a hot minute to figure out what I want to do in the next 6 months, the next 5 years, and the rest of my life.
So, my goal is to not only talk to people as a practice but also see if I can write a book and publish it before midnight on Friday. Now to figure out how to upload a book to Amazon…
Trey
PS. Reply to this email with one random sentence I should include in the book I am going to try to write over the next five days. I will include you in the credits.
Life is not a highway, it's a road map