There was a time when the word milestone got me all excited. We’d celebrate anything we could at any chance we got. I think it was a way of always having something to look forward to when things weren’t smelling like roses. A 120km day through dust and toilet paper is made a little easier if you’re celebrating the ten month milestone that night. Come to think of it I think we even celebrated the ‘First MyPOWER Robbery’ milestone. Matt just got given a new pair of pants, so no doubt we’ll be celebrating that milestone soon.
I think back to the fortune cookie desert party for the 8000km mark or the champagne Putt Putt for the 6 month and can’t help but laugh. It’s all milestone shmilestone these days. As Mereki said, we passed the infamous 16,000km with nothing more than a sideways glance of respect and a quick handshake. Today, by all rights should be a big milestone for me. Today is the day that number beside my name that I’ve seen in countless newspaper articles changes from two quacking ducks to the more impressive two three. It’s the day that number beside my name finally accurately matches the cracks and folds of my now weathered skin. To be honest, numbers don’t bother me. A lot of my closest friends are in their late twenties. I find it easier to talk to the fairer sex on the fairer side of twenty five. So today, the eleventh of the eleventh, was another milestone lacking the pizzazz it might have had earlier on in this mammoth journey.
That suits me though. I’m not a hard man to please. Give me a decent breakfast and a minimum of 30% of daylight hours immersed in salt water and that’ll do me. Too easy. I say I’m not big on birthdays, I talk a big game. But deep down, as Anthony reminded me, this was the only birthday I’ll ever have on the MyPOWER tour. In a weird way, I prefer the act of preparing for friends birthdays. Attempting to cook Anthony a Greek brekkie on his birthday does more for me than my own cake and candles. Regardless, I’m surrounded by my three best mates who help me celebrate my date of birth effortlessly. Just being with the boys here in Byron Bay is enough. I’m not saying that having Ross ‘Shagga’ Coggan shouting us mouth watering dinners and breakfasts isn’t amazing. Nor is having your uncles visit you from Sydney and look after you. Nor is having a complete stranger lend you boards for a birthday surf or a bus load of 20 odd backpackers in party hats hold a barbeque in your honour, for that matter.
The day went swimmingly, to steal an expression from little Livvy Garnett. I’m in one of my favourite places in the world, surrounded by my favourite people doing my favourite things. The boys often ask me why I stare at maps so often. I tell them it’s because I find it fascinating. What I don’t tell them is that, if you can understand the ‘where’ you can orchestrate the ‘when’. Yep boys, that’s right. All those 150km plus days through windy outback hell were all part of the master plan: Roll into beautiful Byron Bay on my birthday. Anthony calls me ‘Busman’, a cryptic piece of wordsmithery derived from Christopher Columbus and his obvious skill with maps. A terrible nickname, but one I’m willing to accept given the outcome of my clever manipulation of distances and dates.
As I sit down by the water with twenty backpacker friends watching perfect waves roll through under a full moon, I’m completely and utterly gratified. We’ve done many things on this journey. Most things we will take with us for the remainder of our lives. Above all, in my twenty three years of experimental experience, I’ve come to understand one thing. I’m not staring at a full moon in Byron Bay because someone put me there. We put ourselves here. Every day we work hard in effortless autonomy to make true the dreams we envisage. I’d love to say I feel older and wiser now but alas I don’t. I’ve still got two years left of learning before my brain starts melting, according to Uncle Kieran. I don’t know about that. Even in a downward state of melted chaos I will always be dreaming. I will always steer my ship towards this same full moon. I am the captain after all. I can sail wherever I want.
Quote of the Day
“For him in vain the envious seasons roll, Who bears eternal summer in his soul.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
TG
tom@mypower.org.au