Heading Home

The ship sails North towards Cape Horn and South America. We are heading home, over 8,000 miles from here—somewhere in the rolling waves of The Southern Ocean. Last night it almost got dark. To see night is to reenter the world.

What did I come here for? What am I taking home besides 3,372 photos?

I’ve witnessed the intimacy between beauty and danger. I’ve seen the fluidity of nature’s roles: liquid as solid, night as day. I’ve learned I love the open sea, and luckily don’t get seasick.

It is human to want to explore. The desire to see new things, be new places, and have new experiences is common to us all. It links the Filipino bartender to the staff photographer to the retired pediatrician from New Jersey. Our paths of travel and understanding are singular, but our wish to expand through our journey is universal. Susan Sontag said that the fear of dying is really the fear of not living fully. For the moment, I’m cured of that.