Our final day. I was going to miss Texas. I was going to miss the rush of performing every day. At the same time, I was ready to go home. I was ready to see familiar sights. I was ready to get back to my real estate clients. I was ready to start writing again. You’d think it’d be easy to write on the road, but it really isn’t that way. For whatever reason, the last thing you want to do is write new stuff when you are busy perfecting your show of old stuff.
We didn’t sell as much merchandise as we’d hoped we would, so we had to mail it back. We took an Uber from the rental car drop off, we had a nice driver who was driving Uber to save up money to get into real estate investing. I was able to give him some advice on what I thought his best path would be.
We got into the airport early enough to grab some food at the LoveShack burger place. It was very affordable for airport food, and very good at that. Flights were on time and not bumpy at all.
We landed in Knoxville right on time. I watched as we dropped through the clouds, and the Smoky Mountains came in to view. They were bigger than I’d remembered them. The vegetation was so much more lush than it was when we left for Texas. We landed, I packed up my things and rolled them onto the jetway and in to the terminal.
Our journey would end in the same place it began. McGhee-Tyson airport. Airports are such interesting places. At any given time it is likely 50% people leaving home, and 50% people heading home. So many people leaving on the journey of a lifetime, or returning home to much needed rest.
As I approached the revolving door, I reflected on all the people that I met, all the stories I’d heard, the songs that I’d discovered, the poems and the poets, the college campuses, the amazing meals that I’d had, and the amazing sites I’d seen.
I wondered what future was just beyond the revolving door. One adventure was behind us, but there were hopefully many more in my future. I had an amazing adventure in 2008, a lyric from a song stuck in my head at this time, and it made it’s return now as well.
“Let this be my annual reminder, that we can all be something bigger.”
We can all be something bigger. Some times it’s as simple as putting the pencil to paper, or booking the plane ticket. But we can all achieve.
Did our journey change the world? No. Did it change someone’s world? Maybe. Did it change our world? Yes.
On to the next adventure. The next desert. The next border. The next city. The next canyon. The next skyline. The next mountain. The next poem. The next mic. The next campus. The next stadium. The next tower. The next storm. The next ocean. The next battle.
But for now, I was home. And I wondered, what wonderful experiences lie just beyond those revolving doors.
And if we find our way, we may never be the same,
And if we lose everything, what have we to gain?
If we don’t try to go,
We may never know,
What we were built to be..
Only we can decide.
Across the great divide.