The family gets cozy in the London Eye
Despite the limitations posed by family travel, this first taste of what wonders beyond the safety and familiarity of North Carolina left her hungering for more. The adventure was calling! When she heard that there might be an opportunity to explore the mysterious land of mythology and tzatziki, she jumped at the chance. So, when she was 17, this girl went on a two-week adventure to Greece where she toured the islands, climbed the smoking Mt. Vesuvius, watched the sun set over Fira, ate more gyros than she could count, traversed narrow roads on the back of a scooter, and was introduced to the joys of dancing til dawn. She even had her first taste of overseas romance.
Standing on the Acropolis overlooking Athens
The small island of Aegina is definitely worth a visit
I made friends with a giant pelican outside a cafe on Mykonos
Wine tastings on Santorini are much more fun if you happen to like red wine
It was magical! So magical, that it only made her wanderlust even more insatiable. So, when she was 18, this little travel bug jetted off for a month-long stay in the land of piazzas, pizzas, and passion... Italia! And what an amazing place Italy proved itself to be! In Florence, she studied Renaissance history and culture, Italian cooking, and jewelry making at the Lorenzo de Medici Institute. She drank wine from the bottle on the steps of the Duomo and ordered drinks from a bar made of fish aquariums at the Space Discoteque. She wandered the narrow cobblestone streets and watched a movie in a converted opera house.
If it were all up to me to hold it up, the leaning tower would probably just fall over
It's a lovely view from the top of the leaning tower
Feeding the pigeons in the Piazza San Marco in Venice
The canals of Venice are as beautiful and romantic as they are dirty
I want to walk through this doorway
I want to open my mind I want to pledge my allegiance to all I can find.
I want a car that will crash through the barriers
to a road no one knows.
I want to feel less control,
want to bend and I want to land far from home.
The revolution of the earth around the sun
is the perfect lesson of how it should be.
So if i cannot learn
to journey and return,
to never rest till I've seen all I can see...
I want to learn a completely new language,
one I don't understand.
I want to help someone lost, someone helpless,
with the strength of my hand.
I want to come to the base of a statue built
before they counted the years,
and there i'll fall with my face in my hands and cry
and feel their hope in my tears.
The revolution of the earth around the sun
is the perfect lesson of how it should be.
So if I cannot learn,
to journey and return,
to never rest till I've seen all I can see...
Train rides and pastures colliding...
colors and customs i've never seen...
I know I, yes I know I,
I know I will stumble
but time is precious my friend.
Those who journey can easily understand,
the more they see the more they'll learn,
the more that they will be.
So this I swear to you, and this I swear to me,
I'll never rest till I've seen all I can see.
No, I'll never rest till I've seen all i can see.
I want to know where the stength of a person lies,
in their past or their future.
Is it in the way that they hurt or they love themselves
or is it all an illusion?
I want to crawl from this skin that i'm painted in...
Body, please let it give.
I want to find the creator of all good things
and ask what it means to live
"All I Can See" by Brendan James
Note: this page is under construction. Please check back to see the finished product soon. In the mean time, any suggestions are welcomed!
