It’s been approximately 1 year, 7 months, and 8 days since I last took a gulp of that strange spirit called travel. You may not have noticed the change, but I did. And I think I’ve earned at least my first chip. 

To be fair, I have traveled to Dominican Republic multiple times since 2010, but that’s my birthplace … so I don’t count it. And I did go to Costa Rica on a missions trip, but I don’t count that because that trip wasn’t about travel, or the people or exploring culture, but instead about service.

Why the exercise in sobriety, you ask?