And so it begins . . .

Hopefully, life is filled with moments that forever alter who you are. While I've had my share of life changing moments, one of the defining moments of my life was meeting and subsequently, interacting with Ty and Marcie Frederickson. Throughout high school, I had the pleasure of having amazing teachers. When I thought the teaching couldn't get any better, I always found that the best was yet to come. However, there were parts of junior year that just couldn't be matched.

Once such instance was near the beginning of my junior year. Having known the Fredericksons for sometime by that point, I knew that they were world travelers. So, slightly intimidated and scared, one afternoon, I dropped by after school and asked Mr. Frederickson how one became a world traveler. He explained that one had to pick a place; that could be by spinning a globe and putting your finger down somewhere, getting suggestions, etc. Once the place was picked, one had to find and set a date and then do whatever was necessary to make it happen. Over the next year, I made sure to stop and talk to both Ty and Marcie on a regular basis about travel, especially when I found out that the next school year they would leave Wichita, to move to Oman.

I had no way of knowing it then, but that simple question and the events that followed, would be a defining moment in my life. Prior to that, I knew I liked to travel but my plans were to visit all fifty states and possibly Britain, so that I could acquire a British accent. However, in our conversations, something in me began to grow and change.

Fast forward to today and I am about to embark on a journey to the other side of the world. My first stop is Delhi, the capital city of India. I'll spend the spring semester there studying Hindi and the history of India. If all goes well, after my semester in India, I'll spend the summer in the Middle East, participating in an Arabic immersion program and then the fall of my senior year will be spent studying in Thailand.

It's both exciting and daunting to think that the most time I have ever spent outside of The States is 3 weeks and now that might easily become a year. It reminds me of a scene from The Namesake where Ashoke explains that he likes reading Gogol because they both spent most of their adult lives, outside of their homelands. I have a feeling that may be my life story as well, but for now, we will stick to the adventures of the coming year.

And thus, The Adventures of JBo is born! I'm not sure how often I will write, but I'm going to make a pledge to write at least once a week. You'll find pictures, stories and occasionally random discussions. I hope you enjoy!

Jessica