Stargate to Self-Actualization

"Tim, I just woke you up 15 minutes ago, come on, you're gonna be late for your flight!" Whoa, this is too reminiscent of my middle school days where I would groan, close my eyes and chant, "I am invisible, I am invisible" in hopes that in fact, I could dupe my parents into thinking I teleported on the Magic School Bus to class. But wait! This isn't school anymore Timmy, I am off to embark on my Latin American romp of the century!

D-Day has finally arrived and I suddenly "reappear" with the quickness and fly to the shower to gather myself. "Ahh, this will probably be the last time I can pull the ol' lazy-boy-maneuver on the shower floor! I do some last minute parcel-stuffing into my bag, Momma runs through her maternal duty of making sure my backpack has zippers and ties some "flare" to it to make sure no other travel satchel at the terminal confuses theirs with mine. Watery eyes ensue along with the warmest miss-you-much kiss I have felt in a long time as Mother is sad but proud as her wide-eyed idealistic wanderlust of a son shuffles out of the door.

On que, "Rambling Man" pops up on the radio as if my Dad put together a "taking Tim to the airport mix" and we nervously peek at each other out of our peripherals and laugh. We exchange top 40 jokes, both of our minds in La-La land and watch as the signs for Reagan Airport seem to get bigger and brighter in the morning 5AM DC rush hour traffic. Guatemala is calling and with ticket in hand, I'm as ready as I will ever be to answer that call and chat for a month.

Cowboy hats, plaid shirts, sun-beaten brown faces, and i-pod touch toting gringos gather around the terminal gate to Guatemala City. I am engulfed in Spanish conversations, picking up the beginning and end end of sentences and laughing at the two toddlers anxiously attempting to deflate the perm that I'm sure their Latina mother spent some serious time on to show off to la familia when she lands.

Wow, talk about transition time. I am taking the first step out of my world and into theirs. In one hour, the Spanish subheadings I read on the Ft. Lauderdale airport's signs will magically change font to the more dominant and bold position as THE only form of public communication.

I take a deep breathe, exhale, click on the shuffle mode and whimsically walk through the Stargate to Self-Actualization. See you on the other side friends!