Gap Year

Dan Strong is bungee jumping,
Dutch boys, lies and more lies, Oxford lads, the north, small Thai ladies, happy elephants, ‘bamboo rafts don’t fucking float’, jungle treks, more Irish girls, Thai boxing, watching failure, and how far does the rabbit hole go…

Dan Strong is maekong man,
he came, he saw, he mankini’d vang vieng in two! tubing, happy shakes, happy bread, and the rest, lying in rivers ”soooo…..this is nice”, being gracefully shot down, 25m rope swings, how to save a life, and a lot of unexplained injuries! TIL baby.…

Dan Strong is crashing motorbikes,
hefty fines, ”the biggest island is a shithole”, german girls, being unable to get rid of our dutch companion, chilling in rice paddies, getting groped by a french teacher, best bus trip ever and sleeping aids….

Dan Strong is capsizing tuk tuks,
killing fields, tuol sleng, sleeping on rooftops, ‘im so excited about these temples, cock blocking, wasting time in hammocks….ha! cambodian clubs, dirty western perverts and the master of sublety, TIC baby.

Dan Strong is the child tree,
waiting far too long for overpriced bar shirts, drinking games for boys, best gay ever! gecko vs snake, street dancing, clean clothes, temples, lara croft, pissing off the tiger, best meal ever and maybe there is light at the end of this very deep rabbit hole.…

Dan Strong is best coffee ever,
last night with mum and dad, back in t land, 6 hour waits, israel girl, tittus, and khao San mornings…. Same same but brilliantly different! P

(Facebook updates from a young guy who is travelling. Submitted by Lucie Shuker)

When

When you love the work you do and the people you do it with, you matter.
When you are so gracious and generous and aware that you think of other people before yourself, you matter.
When you leave the world a better place than you found it, you matter.
When you continue to raise the bar on what you do and how you do it, you matter.
When you teach and forgive and teach more before you rush to judge and demean, you matter.
When you touch the people in your life through your actions (and your words), you matter.
When kids grow up wanting to be you, you matter.
When you see the world as it is, but insist on making it more like it could be, you matter.
When you inspire a Nobel prize winner or a slum dweller, you matter.
When the room brightens when you walk in, you matter.
And when the legacy you leave behind lasts for hours, days or a lifetime, you matter.

Marketer Seth Godin’s blog post You Matter, 15 June 2009. These are not only his words but his line breaks too, merely with the bullet points removed. Submitted by Gabriel Smy.