A Journey for the Soul: Zach's Gap Year With Thinking Beyond Borders

Thanksgiving is easily one of the hardest times to be away from home. Part of  this past Thursday was inevitably spent thinking about what my family was doing back in Canton, Ohio. I could picture them all sprawled out watching Family Feud together, or playing pinball, or secretly snacking on cinnamon bread. It feels like I've done it a million times, and I can imagine it like the back of my hand. But this thanksgiving especially, I have a lot to be thankful for. This time around, three months into this journey, I'm especially thankful for some little luxuries, like warm showers, soft blankets, my 2008 Ipod Nano, and my nalgene water bottle, just to name a few. Really though, I'm thankful for the people in my life. Being away from home this intensly, I've been able to really figure out which people are most important to me, because they are the ones that even after months of limited connection, I'm still thinking about and missing every single day. Those connect

Sorry for the long delay! These last few weeks have been very crazy. First, I had to say a final goodbye to Tecpan and my amazing host family. After that, I spent a week with my group traveling around the country to Semuc Champey, a nature reserve of sorts with beautiful natural pools and waterfalls as well as plenty of hiking. After that, we traveled further north to Tikal, one of the largest ancient Mayan cities, to see the temples and learn more about Mayan civilization. After that we traveled to Flores, a beautiful lake island. We had a few days there to relax by the water decompressing from our homestays and farming. After that began a long few days of traveling. First, we left Flores for Guatemala city, which took us about 10 hours by bus. The next morning (if you can call 4 a.m. morning) we got up and headed off to the Guatemala airport to fly to LAX, then from LAX to Seoul, South Korea, to Singapore, to Bangkok, to Nan, the city we will be living and working in over the next