Memores Acti Prudentes Futuri - Part V: Two Years Gone By

I sit at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in Seattle, WA, writing this post and reflecting on the past two years of my life. It was two years ago today that I left Albany for Japan, where I would live for four months and undergo rapid mental and emotional growth. Seattle is located a little less than half-way between Albany and Osaka, determined by the shortest distance between those two cities. I am currently looking over the Puget Sound toward the Olympic Mountains, which are shrouded in a low, dense overcast. Beyond the Olympic Mountains lies the Pacific Ocean. My gaze is set toward Japan.

Some of the greatest memories I have from my time in Japan include the many travel opportunities I had. My first travel experience outside of the Kansai Region of Japan took me to Nagano, home of the 1998 Winter Olympics. There are so many details to be recalled from these experiences and others, but as I think more about it, I feel that certain details are better left secret to most, only to be shared with a few close friends and loved ones. Perhaps this is disappointing to some of you, but please understand that patience is a virtue, as the saying goes, and that the details will be shared in time.

The memories I possess of Kansai Gaidai, Hirakata, Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima, Tokyo, Nagano, Nikko, and many more places will not fade from my memory. Like the sun, they will shine every day in my mind as permanently etched photos. As I ponder some of my life's greatest experiences, including my time in Japan, here's a question for you - which experiences do you consider life-changing? Try to recall the details, big and small, from these experiences. Try to draw strength and inspiration from your memories. Growth is coupled with experience. Please continue on your quest for daily inspiration and understand that with inspiration will come determination, with determination will come experience, and with experience will come growth.

From time to time, I will continue publishing posts about my experiences in Japan. At this moment, I would like to take time to share my experiences with loved ones. I'd like to draw inspiration from them and inspire them to achieve their greatest goals. It's from inspiration that we can undergo a transformation from great to magnificent.

One last thought - the sun is casting a dull glow over the city of Seattle through the climatologically-favored low winter overcast. The Puget Sound appears undisturbed to the west as the dense, southward-moving traffic races by on Interstate-5, directly below where I am seated. Great buildings with stoic statures reach skyward in every quadrant of my plane of vision. This is the scientist in me sitting calmly and quietly, observing the world turn and life move by out my window. As I sit, I ponder the stories that each passer-by has to share. It's a spectacular, humbling thought.