We arrived home happy, healthy, and immensely grateful for the journey we had just been on. It is easy for me to identify the single most valuable thing that I am taking away from this trip; that unique and priceless gift I doubt I would have received any other way. It is my deep and wonderful friendship with Trevor. We traveled together for nine months, bicycled some six thousand miles, met scores of new people, formed relationships and said goodbyes. We faced and overcame huge challenges and discomforts, unexpected, unimagined obstacles, and realities of ourselves and our own lives that we never wanted to admit, ever, to anyone. Through all of this shared experience there emerged one foundational element of our friendship and respect for each other: Honesty. Honesty is the base on which grew much affection and camaraderie; it was a wonderful gift to receive and practice.
Since returning home I have struggled. I have felt overwhelmed by all the things I want to or feel I should do. This final blog post, for one, is something I felt should have been done much sooner. There are friends I still haven't seen and boxes I have yet to unpack. Of course, everything comes in its time, and while I still experience that overwhelmed feeling, I am grateful that I haven't done everything in my power to "get it all done." Grateful because one of the changes occurring in me during the trip was a priority shift.
I have lived the last five years of my life with the focus to "get done" as much as possible. And, in reality, I have done quite a lot. There was a problem, however, and that problem was that my relationships were almost always lower in priority than work, or school, or anything else I could think to do at the moment. Traveling with Trev every day I could see how ugly it was when I went on with the attitude that biking however far I'd decided I wanted to bike on a given day was more important than being a friend to him, and yet it felt so natural, and even empowering, to me. Slowly, but surely, my priorities began to shift. It is meaningful and encouraging to me that when Jesus is asked what the most important command is, he replies that it is to know that God is one and to love him with all we are, and then that he volunteers the second most important command: to love our neighbors as ourselves. Two relational imperatives. Getting back to my point, I'm grateful that I haven't gotten all my stuff done because I have been able to choose to invest in some important relationships instead. It has been good.
While we were learning the centrality of relationships, we were also being guided and provided for. Trevor and I certainly worked, saved money, researched, and planned for this adventure, but please believe me when I say that I am thoroughly convinced it was only by the generously granted grace of God that we made it through our journeys, and that we survived them well, and together. We have just gone through a nine-month practicum on not worrying about our lives, what we will eat or drink; nor about our bodies and what we will wear, for life is more than food and the body more than clothes. God abundantly provided all these things, and the strength to carry on, and the love, and the honesty, and the joy.
At the end of our trip, many have asked me if I would ever do something like it again. My answer is definitely yes. I will adventure, with friends, in foreign lands for extended periods of time. I am not, however, looking to do it again any time soon. I'm quite ready to stay home for some years.
Many have also asked what we plan to do next, and it's relatively simple for the both of us to respond. I'll be returning to school to study chemistry (chemical biology eventually) and working much as I have for the last two years, and Trevor will be working rather more, going to India with our church, and applying for a plumbing apprenticeship program while investing much into his relationship with Megan. We're also thinking of renting a place together when Trev returns from India.
Finally, we've gone through the photos that we saved from our journey and selected the 30 that we most enjoy, either for their breath-taking quality or for the story of which they remind us. I hope you thoroughly enjoy them.
Much thanks, again, to those of you who prayed for us, loved on us, and kept up with our travels. It was encouraging to hear from you and read your comments. We are immensely grateful to God for taking care of us every step along the way, and for making the trip greater than either of us ever imagined.
Love,
William and Trevor
Guille y Trebol
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