Cheers to a new blog! I have created this to document my thoughts as I use the summer to prepare for an indefinite trip to Europe on a one-way ticket. My hopes are to articulate the thought-process on the forthcoming adventure as well as record my travels as I do them. A decade or two down the road, it will be a useful tool to reminisce and recount tales I may have forgotten.
Why the name?
This past winter break, I was fortunate enough to visit Hawaii and stay with a God-fearing family whom embraced me as their own. It was a great experience where the adventures were abundant and the good times non-stop. One of the common sights, while I was in Hawaii, was a sticker that displayed HE>i. At the time, I was staying with them in a place called “Hawaii Kai” and I figured it was a logo supporting local pride. As it turned out, I was wrong – the family [laughing] corrected me and told me it meant “He is greater than i”.
So as it goes, the title of the blog has everything to do with my favorite guy out there, Jesus. Though this trip has a strong focus on expanding my knowledge of the world, it’s really to provide a humbling experience of God’s love and creation. If a sticker would to be made of this blog, it would correctly display HE>levi.
Why travel? Why now?
The root of my aspirations for traveling started back in 2010, when I was gifted with the opportunity to spend over a month in the Philippines. The people and family I met, the culture I was exposed to.. it never left me. As some would call it, I caught the travel bug and it’s been tugging at me since.
Europe has always been on the map for me. A place painted in history and landscape. My father told me he went back when he turned 18 with his father and I can only imagine how memorable of an experience it was as a growing young adult. There’s a story that goes somewhere along the lines of this: A young man out of college walks into an interview prepped with answers of his collegiate career. As he takes a seat in front of the interviewer, he is stumped on the first question “Don’t tell me what you’ve learned, tell me where you’ve been”. To me, our college careers all have similar implications. It’s the exposure to the world that differentiates ourselves from one another and this is that chapter in my life.
As I graduate from the University of Northern Colorado in a few weeks, I will be blessed with the presence of family and friends. My love for all of them will be the hardest part as I leave in August though their support has made the difference. This is my next step in becoming the individual I would like to see as a father, husband, son, brother, employee, and friend. Let the focus be beyond me, and as it should be, greater than levi.
greater than levi 