The End

I sat down in 8A matter-of-factly. The doors closed on Southwest flight 561. We reached 10,000 feet, I put my headphones on, read a book for a bit, drank a Coke, and avoided small talk with a chatty passenger excited for vacation.

70 minutes later it was over. My 6th Southwest flight of the week in the books.

And not just a flight– my Fall. 5 events in 6 weeks. And a whole bunch of speaking engagements piggy-backed onto each of those. At one point I did my social media presentation something like 16 times in one week.

50 days of travel with only a few days at home between some of them. Nashville, Indianapolis, Paris, Seattle, Atlanta, Orlando, San Fransisco. (Among others) Rental cars, hotels, airplanes, restaurants, forgotten items, receipts, and names.

It was a blast. It was a blur.

So this week begins a final phase of 2014. Today begins resumption of normality. Routine, reorientation, recovery, and and endless pile of receipts.

Making Sense of It All

Technically, I’m done with work travel for 2013. So it’s time for a round-up.

In reviewing my 2013 trips on Tripit I’ve done 74,519 miles. 92 days. 37 cities. 5 countries.

It doesn’t just feel like a lot, it is a lot. 25.2% of 2013 has been spent traveling. That’s leaves me 199 miles short of making 3 trips around the globe.

So while I’d like to say I can make sense of all of that, I can’t. I know that 2013 has been great by most forms of measurement. But I need to get away from it a bit more to start unpacking the experiences and finding meaning.

Thankful

In the tiredness, in the mounting todo list undone, in the desperate desire to reconnect with the ones I love… I’m left with a deep feeling of gratitude. With 11/12ths of it in the bank, 2013 has been amazing.

I might not have found meaning in it. I might not have wrapped my head around it. But I know that the past 11 months have been great.

And 2014? Well… I did come up 199 miles short of circumnavigating the globe 3 times. So there’s that.