Enjoying The Trip

I was looking through my Senior yearbook from high school and found a note tucked in the back.  My AP English teacher gave it to me.  It has a poem on the front and a personal note inside.  As I read it, for the first time in 8 years, I found how wonderfully it illustrates what being in my twenties, in this place in life in general is like.  Thanks Mrs. Williamson, you taught me so much!

Ithaca

by C.P. Cavafy

translated from Greek by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard

When you set out for Ithaca, 

pray that your road's a long one, 

full of adventure, full of discovery.

Laistrygonians, Cyclops,

angry Poseidon - don't be scared of them:

you won't find things like that on your way

as long as your thoughts are exalted,

as long as a rare excitement

stirs your spirit and your body.

Laistrygonians, Cyclops,

wild Poseidon - you won't encounter them

unless you bring them along inside you,

unless your soul raises them up in front of you.

Pray that your road's a long one.

May there be many a summer morning when - 

full of gratitude, full of joy - 

you come into harbors seen for the first time;

may you stop at Phoenician trading centers

and buy fine things,

mother-of-pearl and coral, amber and ebony,

sensual perfumes of every kind,

as many sensual perfumes as you can;

may you visit numerous Egyptian cities

to fill yourself with learning from the wise. 

Keep Ithaca always in mind.

Arriving there is what you're destined for.

But don't hurry the journey at all.

Better if it goes on for years

so you're old by the time you reach the island,

wealthy with all you've gained on the way,

not expecting Ithaca to make you rich.

Ithaca gave you the marvelous journey.

Without her you wouldn't have set out.

She hasn't anything else to give.

And if you find her poor, 

Ithaca wont' have fooled you.

Wise as you'll have become,

and so experienced,

you'll have understood by then what Ithaca means.

Recently I have been both dreading my birthday in August, which is a first, and wishing that I would be in my 30's already so I don't have to deal with all the shit that comes with being at this place in life.  Clearly I need to slow down and enjoy the moments.
(Oh, and take a look at the new photo of me on the sidebar!)