Amazing Photojournal Idea: Leading Around the World on Imgur

Documenting trips around the world is one of my biggest passions. Combining writing and photography can make a big difference. One constant that I like to have in all of my photography is people. I enjoy capturing what makes all of the places around the world so special. And that is mostly the people. Yes, landscape, skyscapes, and all other -scapes are incredible and I love photographing them, but the ones that resonate just a bit more emotion to me are photos with people within the frame. This imgur album titled "leading around the world" is something I stumbled upon and I love it.

The theme is not people -- but rather a person. This is a loved one that's wanderlust, nomadic, adventurous, fun and wanting to share the experience -- quite literally, hand and hand. Having someone to share the magnificent wonders of travel, test your limits and patience in unfamiliar territories, and challenge you daily as you expand your comfort zones is not only a treasure to a globetrotter, but it is a rarity. I connected closely to this user, makemisteaks', album. I brings back incredible memories of traveling with a companion and forever having those experiences together, like a tattoo seared into your memory. We tried to do a running photo series while traveling, but instead of hands holding, we used our loving little stuffed panda bear as our featured motif through the China landscapes.

This "leading" album is beautifully made (unlike the half-hearted attempt we made in China), and although the HDR quality can be a bit distracting, it is necessary to see all of the subtle features and details of every single photograph. Look closely at every photo and see recurring themes and what things change (fingernail polish, braclets, hairstyle, background and colors). All of these things go "hand-and-hand" with the feeling of each photo, almost as if you could tell what the expression on the woman's face is in every photo.
Truly a fascinating album and genuine idea to do a point-of-view album that encompasses travel photography and nostalgic memories for those within the photo and those just viewing it.

Love this one... reminds me of a tree near the temple I lived at in Bangkok.

Sri Lanka Deserves Travel Recognition

Here's a quick piece I just submitted to Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2013 about one of my all-time favorite places in the world, Sri Lanka:

"The often forgotten country at the heart of the Indian Ocean has undeniable character and culture. The well-known tsunami that was the caused due to a massive earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia in 2004 struck the coastlines of dozens of countries, causing massive damage and killing up to a quarter million people. Though not as well publicized around the world as other countries and their disaster response, one of the hardest hit countries from the tsunami was Sri Lanka, sitting directly in the path of the waves’ destruction. The small island with much of its civilization directly on its beautiful coastline was completely destroyed. In one moment, nearly 2,000 people were killed by the first onslaught of waves crashing in-land and killing almost every passenger on the busy train line Queen of the Sea. The destruction resulted in the greatest loss of life in railroad history.

Five years after the tsunami took over 35,000 Sinhalese lives, I had the fortune to visit this incredibly breath-taking country. With its rich history hailing from Portuguese, Dutch and British heritage combined with their strongly independent culture, it's easy to see what makes Sri Lanka so attractive to a history buff. But it has so much more than century-old history and ancient roots. Just months before I arrived to the capitol of Colombo, Sri Lanka's modern-day history was continuing to be dramatically shaped as the civil war between the government in power and the Tamil Tigers finally ended after 26 years. Faced with years of struggle and violence, topped with unfathomable natural destruction to an already poor economy, Sri Lanka looked to be doomed with the cards it was dealt. But the tear-drop shaped nation just off the southern Indian coast persevered. The country's strong values in family and community rebuilt the nation from the ground up. With a healthy government and growing economy, the once overlooked country is getting standing on its own again.

The country’s culture and community make up its remarkable character. It's traditional food of fishes, chutneys, curries and an array of rich flavors paired with its relaxed atmosphere brings a speed of smoothness similar to its coconut sambol. With its deep roots to Buddhist, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam, the country begs for a faith-driven traveler to see its many sides and tranquility around each corner from Kandy to Colombo. The Sri Lankan people are some of the kindest, most generous, and prideful individuals. Even though faced through centuries of adversity, the culture and customs of such a small country remains strong and true, even though often lost in the mix of the more popular travel destinations like India, Thailand and Indonesia. Sri Lanka is a travelers' ultimate trip for great activities such as hiking or beach going, as well as catching a cricket match on any street corner. It has tremendous value to foreign travelers looking for something a bit off the beaten path and with a cultural background unlike any of its neighboring countries.

Of all my travels, I have still to this day found a country that comes remotely close to Sri Lanka’s beauty, endurance, spirituality, and overall charm."

Why I Run: Olympic Torches and Motivation

With the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremonies kicking off today, I felt it would be best to give a little insight into my connection with the Olympics but also on what I have done in my ten years following that special moment on that cold winter morning of 2001.
The best way for me to describe how everything connects in my life is to provide you with the back-story to this letter, which I originally wrote to the Philadelphia Enquirer on "Why I Am Running The Broad Street Run" for their potential publication following the race back in May. (My story did not get selected, but another beautiful story of struggle and accomplish did.) But I have many friends, family and strangers ask me the same question about running organized races like 5ks, 10 milers and half-marathons (not onto full marathons yet): "Why do you do it?," "Why pay to run long distances?," "Is there some sort of special acknowledgement for completely these runs or simply bragging rights on Facebook?" These are real questions people have asked me and so I feel there is no better way to explain than through my story.
So in honor of the beautiful Olympic Games underway, the spirit of competition, athletic endurance and fitness, and lifelong struggle, I ask for you to read my letter on Why I Run. Afterwards, if you feel motivated enough to make a small donation to the Team Fight organization, the information about the foundation I run for is linked below!

"Why I Run"
I've never been one to accept rejection lightly. I don't like to be told what I can and cannot do. And when I was 13 years old, I was told I wasn't allowed to do much with my future (whether it be long-term or near-future). I was told I had Lymphoma Hodgkin's disease, a common form of cancer among teenagers. Likelihood of surviving the disease was high. I received chemotherapy and radiation as I finished up elementary school and entered into high school. I was declared "cured" after six months of treatment. Just after a few months of check ups, the cancer had come back with much more severity, spreading throughout my body.

An overhaul of treatment ideas came forth and extensive amounts of chemotherapy did not do it's job once again. A last resort had been to receive a stem-cell transplant. I harvested my own stem-cells for three months before undergoing the highest dosage of chemotherapy possible, to wipe out the spreading cancerous cells, along with my entire immune system. I remained in isolation within the hospital for 6 weeks, hadn't eaten in 17 days, was getting sick every hour on the hour. And with the limited amount of people allowed to visit me due to harmful germs (even the common cold could have killed me if I contracted it), I had mostly my mind to dream of breaking free from the hospital and wandering the world, free of tubes, IVs, nausea, and desperately concerned looks from my family as I was on the brink. Finally, my immune system begin to recover, I left the hospital only to be confined to my house for 4 months in strict isolation. No physical interaction with family members, no high school classes, just a tutor who visited and worked with me (from a distance). Being locked down in a house is not something a person like myself can handle. Truly it is something one one should ever have to handle.

But a break happened around Christmas time of nearly my third year of fighting the disease. I was selected to run one-tenth of a mile, carrying the Olympic torch as it on it's way to Salt Lake City. The honor was huge, and the chance to get out of my house to run free had finally come.

At 4:30am in 10 degree weather, an hour from my house in New Hampshire, I was passed the flame to run my stretch of the relay. For the first time in my life I got the thrill of running for a crowd. My one-tenth of a mile was filled on both sides of the road with my closest family and friends cheering me on. This was my first real exercise in months of hospital beds and minimal health. But it wasn't apparent. I was so thrilled with adrenaline and happiness, I began sprinting and high stepping before being told to slow down and embrace the moment. As my dad said afterwards, "You looked like you could run a marathon with how excited and how much energy you had." And it felt like I could have.

That was my first taste of organized running. Talk about a stage to enter in on. But sadly, after finally regaining a healthy and strong immune system and being completely cleared of any cancerous cells in my body, I still had obstacles to face in the future. My doctors gave me warnings of all the things I should not -- and could not -- do with my second lease on life. Of the laundry list of things my body -- specifically my heart -- could not handle, three stuck out in my mind the most; no scuba-diving, no high altitude climbing, no long endurance training/running.

Challenge accepted. Nine years after being diagnosed, while living in Thailand, I climbed to the top of Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, one of the tallest mountains in Southeast Asia. The two day trek stretched my lungs and heart to the limit with it's 4,095 meters above sea level elevation. After surviving that, I got the hunger. To honor my ten year anniversary of my diagnosis, I climbed for four days to the base camp of the tenth tallest mountain in the world, Nepal's Mount Annapurna in the Himalayas, at 4,130 meters above sea level. I reached the peak April 8th, 2010, just three days before my decade of challenge and celebration.

Just eight months after that, I began training for my first half marathon. On October 15th, I checked off another "cannot do" on my doctor's list, finishing the Baltimore Half Marathon in just over two hours.

This year's Baltimore Half Marathon will be my second time running it. But with each measurement of distance, I always think of my proudest 1/10 mile back in 2001 with torch in my hand.

I plan to continue running longer distanced runs in the future, hoping to complete that marathon my father told me I looked so prepared for during my sickest days.
Checking off these challenges on my list has been something I've prided myself on and have built my life post-cancer around. So when I think about why I'm running any race, I just think back to all of the times I wasn't able to jump out of my hospital bed and just run. That imagine encourages me everyday and every mile.

To donate towards my cause for Team Fight, please go to my personal page here and help me reach my fundraising goal for this year's Baltimore Half Marathon.

Thank you to everyone's donations, encouragement, help, and support!

Positive Thinking and "Mai Pen Rai" are Paying Off

In a recent article published by Wealth Wire, titled "The Secret to Living a Longer, Fuller Life" it was shown that maintaining a happy disposition can be more beneficial to your longevity than many believe.

Until recently, researchers have largely focused on the genetic components that allow centenarians to reach the age 100.  But researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine as part of their Longevity Genes Project, with the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology of Yeshiva University have found that personality traits like being outgoing and optimistic may also contribute to longer lives.

It has been probably my biggest argument in life. Anyone person that I have ever spoken with on the quality of life, the struggles we face, and the ultimate way to find peace all stem from one thing: positive thinking.
Throughout the years I've written a lot about life and what it means to live life in a complete and healthy manner. I'm no expert. I don't have the answers, but I have my beliefs and what I feel truly makes for a happier, more peaceful life and it all boils down to the idea of keeping positive mentality.
To get through life's hardest times, it takes the power of positive thinking to get you through it. No matter the circumstances, their is always a silver lining in life, there is always a positive to come from it, it just takes someone who's accustom to thinking in that way to see it. Any situation life presents you is an opportunity for a positive outcome, whether it be losing a job, failing an exam, being stricken with disease, having your heart broken, being insulted by someone else. No matter how horrid those scenarios are, there is always a positive way of embracing them all. The quicker you see it, the quicker it will happen. Positive thinking leads to positive actions. This is true even for things you feel are out of your power.
I've spoken at schools, written articles for various publications, and simply been a friend to those in need and discussed this topic. No matter the occasion, there is absolutely no reason to think poorly on situations.
Negative mentality equals negative energy which in turn leads to negative results. It's a simple philosophy that I firmly stand by. I live by it. So much so it's ingrained permanently in my soul and on my skin.
Back in 2006, after six months of truly discovering the unbelievable things life has to offer through travel, spirituality, and open-mindedness, I decided to get a tattoo.
It seemed cliche, getting a tattoo after studying abroad. But I didn't care. I knew it was deeper, more meaningful than that. I had been working to live for many years before that day I stepped into the tattoo parlor directly off the beach in Au Nang, Thailand. And I knew I was going to express my appreciation to living a happy, healthy, peaceful, and carefree life with a tattoo.
My chance to connect with the Thai culture was a success while studying abroad. I saw what life was like in a country where the value of a life was much more than in western cultures. Not in terms of money or benefit to society, but the respect of the body, mind and soul was something you saw more frequently in Asia. I never wanted to forget that.
Specifically in Thailand, people's way of living is slower. Life didn't move too fast, even in Bangkok's vast and hectic metropolis. That is something I connected with. And much of that stemmed from the phrase that you heard very frequently within the language, "mai pen rai" which means "do not worry about/it's ok/everything is fine." When I explain that to some western friends, they say, "oh yea, 'Hakuna Matata!'"
Essentially they have the same meanings but instead of being based from a cartoon, the phrase 'mai pen rai' is a way of living. Mai pen rai is a way to treat your mind, body, and soul and not get caught up in the superficial, unnecessary and less beneficial way of life. It teaches me to breathe, appreciate and be happy. This is why I got my tattoo on the top of my foot, a place that you only look at when you are looking down. One look at the ink upon my skin and I know that whatever it is that is getting me down, it's not worth sulking about. As they say, "Everything will be OK in the end. If it's not OK, it's not the end."
I guess there are many ways to say it; "Don't sweat the small stuff", "Life's too short...", "Live life to the fullest", etc. All of these a representative of the main idea of living life to it's greatest extent and with a positive mentality and you too will reach old age with happiness in your heart.
As the article explained,

"When I started working with centenarians, I thought we'd find that they survived so long in part because they were mean and ornery," said Dr. Nir Barzila, study co-author, director of Einstein's Institute for Aging Research and chair of its division of Aging, in a press release.
However according to Dr. Barzila, the study found qualities that clearly reflected a positive attitude towards life. Most were outgoing, optimistic, easygoing and considered laughter an important part of life. Many had a large social network and expressed emotions openly rather than bottling them up.

This is what we all must strive for, a more outgoing, optimistic, and easygoing life full of laughter and love. It may sound like rainbows and cupcakes to some. But those who believe that appreciating the smaller, more positive things in life is a bunch of exaggerated prettying of a harsher, crueler, and more rigid world clearly hasn't actually stopped to appreciate the beauty of a rainbow and the deliciousness of a cupcake. And to me, that's sad to know that happiness cannot be as easily accessed to them. It is all about training your mind to believe it. 

U.S. Tourism Policies Need to Change

One of my most recent articles for Wealth Wire discusses how vital the U.S. Tourism industry is for our economy. With about 1% (or $153 billion) of the United States' GDP, tourism has the potential to be stronger and have a larger impact toward our economy. Why not open our doors a little more and lighten up the TSA's restrictive, invasive, and expensive services a bit to allow more people to see how amazing America is.
I've been known to bash America on many various reasons, but since moving back to the U.S. in 2010, I have come to learn that there is a lot more to this diversely vast nation than I had seen before living abroad. I've come to appreciate what the country has to offer, and with more and more citizens renouncing their citizenship to dodge higher corporate taxes, I say welcome to those who want to come to America. Great people like my friends from Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nepal, South Africa, and many more! These foreign nations have wanted a chance to visit and live in America, to get a taste of what it's like to live within one of the best countries in the world, but yet they continue to get rejected or pushed aside by our country's strict and outrageous visa laws. We need to fix this. Eventually our button-up, "us and only us" mentality is going to destroy this nation.
And with a struggling economy looking for the light at the end of the tunnel, our tourism can be where we recover. Opening our borders to tourists is in fact one of our greatest assets. Read my article titled "U.S. Tourism is America's Greatest Export Asset" and let me know your thoughts.