Section 1: Introduction

While the journey of a thousand miles may begin with just a single step, I see no reason why it can't also begin with a blind double somersault into the deep end.  So here we go.

Tomorrow evening I leave for Sri Lanka and points philanthropic.  Over the next six months I will be volunteering with a pair of amazing organizations that provide a voice for the unrepresented and a support network for the lawyers advocating on their behalf in the developing world.  Behind me, I leave the bright and lucrative future of corporate law and a good deal of nervous family members who all know me well enough to have each separately told me to behave while I'm traveling.  My canned response "no promises!" has received, to my count, one nervous smile, a couple of awkward chuckles and at least five angry glares.

The good news is however that everyone so far seems pretty confident that this is the right move for me.  Sure this wasn't exactly the plan when I graduated from law school, but no plan is ever really perfect.  No map or guide book will perfectly predict how things will actually turn out and usually the best experiences you have along the way are the ones that you didn't read about first.  That photo above, my friends, isn't some stock Google Images result for "most epic sunrise ever," although you'll get plenty of that kind of fluff from me in the future.  Nor is it the sweetest rock album style cover-shot in history - cause everyone knows that this is.  I'm sure you'll recognize that the slightly-overweight shadow second from the left is yours truly, watching the sunrise over the Negev desert in Southern Israel.  While birthright tripping a few years back, I had the totally original idea to climb up the dunes at the ass-crack of dawn and watch the sunrise with a few of my friends.  It wasn't on the itinerary.  It wasn't a suggestion from the guide.  Hell, it wasn't even advisable to be climbing a steep sand and rock face in the pitch black in my well-worn New Balances, but it was friggin awesome.  And it was definitely worth going off-plan for the experience.

Don't get me wrong - having a guide book and a solid plan is a great way to get started.  There always seems to be something that they don't quite cover though...on all of my travels, there always seems to be some vitally important detail that the book just doesn't cover!  My friends and I always called those 'Dear Lonely Planet' moments, wherein you want to contact the people who wrote the guide book and say "um... fellas? Reaaallly could've used that extra bit of info...." 

At the end of the day though, those moments always end up being the best stories from the whole trip.  At the end of the day, those moments always end up being the most important lessons you learn from your travels.  And at the end of the day, the best parts of life are made of up 'Dear Lonely Planet' moments - you find out more about yourself when you face the unknown, or when the plan fails.   I invite all of you to face the unknown with me via 'Dear Lonely Planet' and together we'll find out where this little bit of chaos takes us next.