Airport bound

So out traveling again - 33 hours this time, two loooong lay overs in San Francisco and Frankfurt. Airports are not that much different, did you know? Same kind of stores, same kind of feeling, same kind of people. Not that many surprises, and since I'm not a big shopper I usually end up with my nose in a book, at Starbucks drinking coffee looking at bypassers or getting that one lipstick, same brand, same color, same number. Yeah, so it's not really an adventure, unless something unusual happens! And sometimes it does. A couple of times being upgraded, to business and first class and this time Economy+ (hey, I'll take any upgrade!) or loose your flight and then end up getting a better flight + $300 cash, or meeting someone you really connect with or can help in some way and they end up asking you to coffee and tell you their life story, sitting next to a person who is looking for a person from Kona base because they forgot to hand in a key, and then they end up giving you money in local currency and telling you exactly what you need to know about where to go and who to contact when you get there. Over the years I have a few of those stories.

And then you have all the bad ones - running like crazy only to miss your flight, spending Christmas in an airport hotel, bawling your eyes out before a flight attendant, sleeping on the wet floor in between the seats for 5 hours, 24-hour lay overs or waiting hours in a lane only to discover it was the wrong one...

Yeah those things happen also. But mostly it's not that interesting and time passes by really slowly!

Well this time around I'm on my way home, from Kona to Norway to celebrate Christmas with family and friends. I'll have a few weeks off to spend with those that mean the most to me, and hopefully get some snow and that tinkling Christmas-feeling that's hard to get on the beach in Hawaii. 

Looking back, almost six months since I came here, I'm in awe of all that has happened. Far more than I ever dreamed of, far harder and far better than I thought it would be, and almost a new level of adventures. I didn't know that life could make this much sense, that it could be so fulfilling, that I would do things I've dreamed of all my life - but also that the cost could be so great, and that living on the edge was quite this rough. And I have only been in missions half a year. What will happen after my holiday, what will my reasoning be the next time I travel home from here?

I just had a good Birthday with a pool party and a small group of friends. I still don't feel like I belong in Kona, and maybe it will take some time. I've left everything I know in Norway, and I tell you that's way different in your 30's than when I was 18 and left for the first time. 

But talking to my friend Shelby the other night about how we tend to get just a little bit more scared with age, slightly more worried, so much less willing to take chances or live uncomfortably - and how we both feel we have to fight to not grow anxious (what is it about suddenly being scared of flying or heights, when you never used to be before?) I'm thinking that I want to take that fight!! And that this chance of life only happens once and I will make sure I took it!