About a year ago, I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho for the first time during an EasyJet flight to Prague. It was an old, dog-eared copy borrowed from a friend, the print was lopsided and the last few pages were missing – but reading that book, at that time in my life, changed everything. Or, at least, it opened my eyes to the fact that everything had already changed.

This was near the end of my study abroad sojourn in Nice, France. I’d already spent 5 months traveling all over Europe – I’d scaled the Eiffel Tower, toured the British Museum, kissed the Blarney Stone, and marveled at the treasures of Renaissance Italy. I’d already learned so much about the world around me; experienced people and cultures that I never realized existed.

But most importantly, I gained something even more essential: the intrinsic understanding that I really can do anything I set my heart to. As cliched as it sounds, living abroad really did allow me to let go of the only thing holding me back from experiencing the world to its fullest: my own fear – fear of uncertainty, fear of failure, fear of the unknown.

My friend and I have been planning this “World Tour” ever since my return from abroad. Being in a foreign country for a semester is far from satisfying; if anything, it only whets the appetite for more travel and adventure. I want to spend <i>years</i> abroad; I want to live for months with the peoples and experience the cultures that I’ve only read about in books and magazines. I want to see mountains and villages and mosques and cathedrals; I want to experience testaments to human glory the world over.

Our tour will start in western China; staying with and learning about my own people, the Turkic Uighurs of Xinjiang. This will be the first branch of a journey that will include nations all over East and Southesast Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and South America.

In December, I will be graduating with a B.S. from the University of Maryland. I’ve spent the past three and half years learning about the world and myself; now I have both the education and the self-confidence necessary to truly appreciate this voyage around the world. I plan to keep a detailed travel blog here at WorldTourTM.com and post pictures online to record every step of my journey, both to share with the world and to keep as a souvenir of my own.