“The important thing is this: to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.” -  Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

I hung up the cell phone in the middle of Meijer the night before my last full day in Michigan and it hit me for the first time-I am leaving everything I know for the next sixteen months.  I laughed out loud –it was one of those laughs that would be categorized as giddy.  I had just finished an orientation conversation with Amanda Sharia –our team leader for the Habitat for Humanity trip in Costa Rica.  I could tell by our conversation that she is passionate about the mission of Habitat for Humanity.  The team that she selected for the build excited her.  It was a diverse group in regards to age and experience with nonprofit organizations.  For whatever reason the conversation made it clear to me that I was really leaving.

The past two months were spent creating lists and removing items from the list so I could be prepared to leave the country.  Equipment, clothes, preparing the house for my renters.  Slowly each day the list became smaller and on the final day I just had two things to do- pack up my office at the Michigan Nonprofit Association and pack for the trip.

I usually pride myself in being a laid back traveler but the packing was more difficult than I thought it would be.  When all you have are two backpacks- a large one for your clothes and shoes and a small daypack for my computer/video camera and travel books- every item seems important. I didn’t want to forget something but at the same time I didn’t want to have the added weight.

I could feel the pressure building.  The thoughts were running through my head. Will this be enough? What am I forgetting? Shouldn’t I be more excited about the trip?  And then it snuck in there— Am I making the right decision? Well Sam it is a little too late for that isn’t it.  You quit your job-didn’t run for re-election and told anyone who would listen that you were going around the world.

I don’t think I was prepared for those feelings.  I am the guy that can roll with the punches- I can travel with best of them.  Twenty years of dreaming, six years of savings and one year of intensive planning and here I am a few hours from leaving to Detroit Metro and the questions will not stop rolling through my head.  I took a deep breath and reminded myself that everything works out in the end-it has so far in my life- why wouldn’t it work this time.

Dreams are not meant to be easy. If they were we would have accomplished them already.  They exact a sacrifice like the ancient gods of Olympus.  A sacrifice that demands that you question yourself and every decision you have made in the past 12 months.  I am banking that the sacrifice is what makes the dream so much sweeter.