Row row row your boat...life is but a dream

I just finished reading "Adrift," a true account of Steven Callahan's 76-day drift across the Atlantic Ocean in a life raft. I can't imagine a worse personal hell than to be stuck in the middle of the ocean alone in the sun on a tiny life raft with nothing to eat but raw fish.....but here I am, preparing to set off into a different type of unknown frontier with potential hazards equal to those of sailing across the ocean alone. In the epilogue, the author writes, 

"To my mind, voyaging through wildernesses, be they full of woods or waves, is essential to the growth and maturity of the human spirit. It is in facing the challenges of the wilderness that the thickness of your wallet becomes irrelevant and your capabilities become the truer measure of your value."

My experiences on course for Outward Bound have given me a little peek into how the wilderness brings out the true nature of people. Sometimes I like the me I've seen, and sometimes I've been disappointed. However, even being away from just a few comforts for only a month at a time has made me so appreciative of what I do have, and made me realize how insignificant so many "problems" in my life are. I can't wait to take a break from it all and just take a nice long walk for five months.