Travel Reference
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“Oh wow, yeah. Very Kerouac-ian” he laughed. “Basically that would be it. LA is such
a big city in such a small place, and there's more going on outside of it.”
I understood. I had grown up in a big city that felt like a small place. And I had
wondered what the world was like beyond it. I had dreamed of that world. And what I dis-
covered was that I brought a piece of every place I visited home with me. A little part of
India will always be in me. A little part of Vietnam. A little part of the Griffith Park Obser-
vatory.
I knew it was time to tell him why we were here.
“You know how you just talked about your desire to travel the world and go into the
school of life and inspire other people and to learn and bring back what you learn to help
others?”
“I would like to,” he said wistfully, still not fully comprehending what was about to
come.
“Well, you're going to get that chance.”
“Me?” he said, looking like he had just been run over by his old truck.
“You. What I am going to do is I am going to pay for you to go on an around-the-world
journey. Your hotels will be paid for, your spending money paid for, your flights paid for.”
“Whoa. I didn't expect that.”
“And one more thing.”
“Yeah?”
“I want this journey to go full circle. So along with that worldwide trip, I am going to
give you money to change someone's life. You can decide to change one person's life. You
can decide to change five people's lives. But what you did to start this journey, I am now
giving you the chance to do for someone else.”
Silence.
“Wow. I'm speechless,” he finally said.
He stood up again and looked back out across LA, as though he could now see beyond
the edge of its horizon. He started to laugh, his eyes growing wet as he explained. “Nothing
like this ever happens to me, so you have to understand that I don't run into situations like
this at all. I've never gotten an opportunity before like this.”
He muttered to himself, “Good things never happen to me.”
How many times have we all believed that lie? That somehow we are fated for bad luck
and hard times. That we're resigned to limit our dreams. We tell ourselves that the best stuff
