I have to admit it took me a good while to get the hang of traveling alone. It sounds strange to me even to say it, since traveling is what changed my life so completely as a young boy traveling the world with my family, and then flying alone to Europe in 2000 with nothing but a backpack and my skateboard. Though I was surrounded by relatives then, my German was less than functional. I was simply good at nodding my head and sharing the same reactions as those talking to me in order to get by. How easy it is for people to assume their reaching you, when they are not, and vice versa. Yet those experiences allowed my mind to expand well beyond those of my peers, as my dirty little secret allowed me to be everywhere, with everyone, and yet in a world of my own, a permanent growth cycle set outside of those around me. I had never been one to follow others in the classical sense, but I joined them in what they were doing, so long as it did not conflict with my values.