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Epilogue.

I’ve been home now for almost three weeks.

I work at a magazine called Nature’s Best. It is small, and the staff is awesome. I have a great time there, and I learn new things there every day. Steve, the editor, is an incredibly friendly guy who started out with the National Wildlife Federation. Bob is formerly of National Geographic, and every day he has an absolutely amazing story from his travels to share. He is currently writing a novel about one of those journeys. I can’t wait to read it. Drew used to be at America Online and left before it started to dive. Chuck, who owns the office park, is an avid photographer, and spreads from one of his features adorn the wall over the reception desk. Everyone shares a passion for photography and nature. It’s like family.

Recently, things have been going very well. I am planning to move out to San Francisco within the next few months. I am flying out in October to scope things out and have lunch with Michael Vanderbyl, who to my good fortune, is a very nice person. I had the chance to talk to him on the phone today. If he and his secretary are any indication of what a good mood the California bay area can put you in, I think I’ll be very happy out there.

It might be a little too soon to really get a good grasp on the whole experience as the group bands together to author our book, but what I can tell from my travels already is that I’ve been injected with a newness that seems to have jumpstarted my creative drive. I am more aware. I am on the lookout. I am driven. I carry around my fountain pen and my sketchbook to remind me not to settle. I ache for a change of scenery and I long to improve. I search for outlets and I go. It’s almost like I’m experiencing a fin de siècle of my own. There was me before Vienna, and there is me now. I am reborn.

In the last page of my first sketchbook from Vienna, I had written, “now what?”

I can’t wait to find out.

For additional pictures from my trip, click here.

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