Traveling alone normally brings about memories that you cannot actually share with anyone. You tend to see things you would often overlook and you slow down to enjoy the little things that often are pushed out of our busy lives.

As I sit in the Portland International Airport between a café, one of the many Powell’s Books, and souvenir shop “Made In Oregon,” while surrounded by the Arizona State University women’s soccer team (score! I mean gooooalllll), I find myself innately keen to the things around me.

A father lifts his two-year-old daughter on top of a statue, with mom rolling her eyes and laughing, people briskly walk by with a dazed look, young couples, old couples, and a few lonely transients like me.

It was not too long ago that I dreaded the idea of going home, but this week the tide has changed. As I made a surprise visit to my mom, thanks to the help of my dad, Oregon became a much sweeter place. The surprise was on me.

This is the first time I have seen the fall colors in two years, as by Thanksgiving most everything is dead and fallen away. I drove through my favorite downtown hotspots, drove on my winding country back roads, and spent a much-needed weekend with my family.

Life is speeding ahead

It was here that I perhaps realized reality: life is continuing and I have neither the ability nor the intention of slowing it down. It happens to the best of us, we grow up and life just kind of happens.

When we live in Los Angeles, life typically has two speeds: fast and hyper-speed. We have our to-do lists, our agendas, our goals and ambitions. Career goals and passions are hot topics on the lips of university students.

I know most of us want to grow up yet most of us also want to enjoy every single second of college.

But what will we remember?

Perhaps the greatest joy I have found in the last two months is simply leaving my phone in my car and dancing in the rain, because this weekend brought that opportunity. It is those little moments that will taste so much sweeter when I am nearing the age of death — whenever that might be.

We will not remember those check marks on each box of our lists as much as the times we threw the list away all together. Getting in the car with your buddies and driving as far as a tank of gas will get you, laughing along the way and getting in trouble— those are the times that I seek.

I once challenged my friend to find her passions, to forget the agendas and the typical way of life and to just go for her dreams. It may sound cliché, but it is true. There are a million passions you probably have— realize that the little ones count just as much as the large ones.

A lesson from the older and wiser

Over the weekend I saw my godfather, who is fighting leukemia. There is still fight in the dog and even greater faith in the spirit, as he, his wife, and his twins trust God. As I sat with him and talked about every other topic but his illness, I saw a man of God with the right attitude.

Many could sit in their wallows, looking for sympathy and being full of sadness. Instead, he cracked wise remarks at me, and begged Frank Gore to score a touchdown to help him beat his pastor in fantasy football.

We talked about school, life, and what I may want to do after college. Suddenly it did not matter so much, because the couple I stayed with so many summers in a row showed me life is so much more than a degree from Biola University, our beloved school.

Back to that airport. The sky that held out for me most of the day is finally letting go and shedding some tears. Perhaps that is appropriate. It matches the tone of my heart as well.

I am watching a child on a leash, listening to a man play his folklore on a steel guitar, and for once, forgetting about my to-do list.

You should do the same— you would be surprised at what epiphanies you may come across.