Hello Austin,

I am sorry that my article elicited pain; and I am sure, — in fact I am certain, that you are correct, that there could be a better way to describe my experience Austin. Perhaps next time I will do better. I hope so.

I see that you inferred a lot of fanciness from what I wrote. “Traveling to Europe, couch hopping around while exploring wonderful things…”. I am going to read my article carefully and see what might have given this glamorous impression that has nothing to do with the reality.

The reality at that point in time Austin was that there was no easy way out; it was going to be suffer doing this, or suffer doing that; and you know what? there were money pressures too; I was living off of student loans, but I knew that suffering teaches us and enriches us, and sometimes there is just no getting out of it, so we might as well be bold with it and try to raise to the situation; take it by the horns if you can, even if you have to climb a latter. And if no one around you encourages you, you encourage yourself.

Maybe it amounts to refusing becoming a victim, I am not sure. I will think about this more.

Thank you for your comment; I appreciate it.