Bus to Pakse, Laos

I've been riding on the bus to Paksan for about 2 hours now going in and out of consiousness.
Throughout the trip our group has been meeting other world travelers and current classmates of Aaron and Lahti from Holt.
It's extremely facinating to me how big the world is and how much there is to explore. Lahti has been to 60 different countries. Aaron's friend Stefan whom I met in Beijing has been to more than 40% of the world.

I feel a certain amount of jealousy toward these people who are able to drop everything and journey alone to places they've never been to before and don't speak the local language. So far I've explored Bangkok and have gotten along just fine with the help of my friends even though none of us speak Thai.

I think I'd like to make traveling a bigger priority in my life. I should have about 2 weeks a year in PTO so I'm just goign to spend it in a different country considering developing countries are so cheap to travel in once you pay for the airfare to get there.

I'm learning so much from other people's world experiences, things I know I wouldn't learn from people in America. I know more than ever that I don't want to spend the rest of my life in a cubicle working for a corporation. Although that security and normalcy works for a lot of people, it doesn't for me because I'd be missing out on a lot of adventures.