it passed right by me

To anyone out there still reading, I want to thank you for making it this far. It's hard to believe that I arrived here nearly five months ago. After what has been one of the most incredible experiences of my life, I've now reached the end of my Australian journey. I feel like I've done so much during my time here and now have so many great stories to tell, but at the same time there seems to be so many more places to see, people to meet, and of course, waves to be ridden. Such is life in this remarkable world. There will always be more to explore.

All that's left now of my stay is just over 12 hours until I will begin the return leg back home to the United States. It's going to be an absurdly long trip. I depart Sydney tomorrow morning (Wednesday the 30th) at 9:50am here on a flight headed for Los Angeles. From there, I will connect through Minneapolis of all places, and will hopefully end up in Boston by 7:14pm eastern time on Wednesday night if everything goes according to plan. From Boston, I will be heading straight to Woods Hole in order to attempt to catch one of the last ferries of the day to Martha's Vineyard. If it goes well, I will have successfully gone door to door from Bondi Beach to my home town of Chilmark in less than 24 hours (that's including the time change of course). The actual trip will take much longer.

Everything has wound down a lot faster than I expected here. People have been leaving our building nearly every day for the past week. Before I knew it, my friend Garrett and I were the only two left this morning before we had to move out. We spent today walking around Bondi one last time and taking in all of the sights that have made this neighborhood such an extraordinary place to live.

Luckily, I was able to paddle out for the last time at Bondi Beach yesterday afternoon in some very fun and glassy shoulder high surf. It was an incredible experience to watch the sun go down over the colorful winter horizon while catching my last waves in Australia. I don't know if I've ever felt that moved by a session in my life, not necessarily due to the quality of the waves, but due to the magnitude of the situation. There's no telling when I will make it back here, so I figured it would be best to cherish every wave. Let's just say I had to make sure my last one was a good one, and of course, it was. When I exited the water in near darkness to make the barefooted trek back home for the final time, my feet practically became numb from the cold air and the chilled evening sand. I felt no pain. Enduring those few minutes of cold during the walk home is worth it to be able to surf on a daily basis.

Looking back on this past semester I have very few regrets with how everything turned out. When it all boils down to it, I had everyday access to the ocean and consistent surf just a few hundred yards outside my front door. Unfortunately, that's something Nashville will never be able to offer me. In terms of travel, I was able to see a good portion of the New South Wales coastline and was fortunate enough to be able to go to Bali, which was once in a lifetime.

During my time here I also had some pretty interesting wildlife encounters. Whether it was hitting a kangaroo our second day here, surfing with dolphins, or having a late afternoon shark sighting while in the water, there were plenty of eye-opening moments on all ends of the emotional spectrum. I could go on and on about my time here, but I think I've done a decent job covering most of it throughout the semester. Now it's back to my homeland, and I'm definitely thrilled about enjoying another summer on Martha's Vineyard.

Make sure to sound off in the comments section if you're not too shy, as I'd love to hear back from the rare souls out there who have been keeping up with this thing. I've really appreciated any and all support. I can't wait to share my experiences with everyone in person when I return home. I'll probably want to talk about it for hours on end, so forgive me ahead of time. Thanks again and I also can't wait to hear about the last four and a half months of everyone else's lives. I've been a bit out of the loop. See you soon. Hope for good waves.