Three Lessons Learned from a Leap of Faith
when i was 18 years old i traveled on 73
flights
to 46 countries and in this year i saw
the sun rise over mount kilimanjaro
nearly had my arm bitten off while shark
diving in cape town
and fed bananas to wild monkeys as they
bolted through the panama canal
so i know what you might be thinking
this is the story of some
reckless teenager who runs away from
home in search of women in parties
and admittedly there might be some truth
to that
but i assure you it’s a much more
meaningful story
so what philosophical lessons did i
learn in my teenage globetrotting year
well let me tell you here are the three
themes to my year
around the world theme one
you’re one yes away
now this isn’t an admission into a
prestigious university
it’s not an acceptance into a top law
firm or a yes that anyone else gives you
for that matter
it’s an empowering yes it’s a yes that
only you can give yourself when your
back is against the wall you’re staring
in the face of adversity
and no one is going to give in to that
decision but you
so i look back at the decisions that
change the trajectory of my life
and they all have to do with me saying
yes in a moment where i know would have
been
much easier and that first yes came when
i was just 17 years old and living in
sunny san diego california
i came from a beautiful neighborhood
comfortable background
great tennis training so yeah on the
surface
everything seemed great but
underneath that superficial layer
i struggled with anxiety and depression
i felt
trapped and alone and there were
countless times that i would wake up
and i would wish that my day was over
from the second it began
and so i knew that i needed a change of
environment to change my state of mind
and for that reason i made the decision
to leave home before my senior year of
high school from san diego to naples
florida
where i trained for tennis at the
academy of sanchez casal
and that was a yes
and because of that one yes my mental
health improved i achieved a junior
world ranking
and i was on track to play college
tennis
now instead of going down that path i
wound up pursuing other opportunities
that the academy opened for me
i became a contributing writer for
florida tennis magazine on my
experiences traveling the world for the
sport that i love
i also founded legends united a
charitable platform for professional
tennis players to donate their signed
equipment
and those opportunities eventually led
me to travel alongside the professional
tours
where i met so many of my childhood
idols which ultimately led
to my gap year traveling the world
before starting at the university of
miami
and so had i not given myself that first
yes
and left home from san diego to naples i
might not have had the courage to make
that second yes and that third yes and
all of those yeses
that followed and so this initial idea
of me escaping my reality turned into me
embracing
myself i was finally saying yes
to myself and so
in my trademark flip-flops with my
passport in hand
and a bag filled with nike tees and
shorts i embarked on the adventure
of a lifetime the one i knew that i
was deserving of a living
theme two make yourself uncomfortable
so it’s one thing to give yourself this
yes and it’s another thing to make the
most out of this yes
so i’ll go back to may of 2019 where i
was in the middle of my year around the
world
i had just done three weeks of chasing
lemurs around madagascar and
sailing around the musandan peninsula of
oman and i had just 26 hours left
before this segment of the trip was over
i was in tel aviv
now instead of spending those 26 hours
sauntering tel aviv’s palm line
boardwalk or
getting a good night’s sleep and even
though i knew it was a logistical
nightmare
i decided on a day trip to one of the
world’s seven wonders petra
in jordan now the bus departed at an
early 3am
and when i arrived midday i wound up
hanging out with a young australian guy
alex now alex being the charismatic guy
that he is
convinced me to climb the sandstone
cliffs of petra in not
hiking boots but in my flip-flops
and despite nearly falling off the ledge
to my death that day
alex and i made beautiful memories
underneath the jordanian sun
atop the cliffs of an ancient city
unfortunately i only spent a few hours
in petra before making the long
7 hour bus ride back to tel aviv and
barely catching that 5 am flight to
miami
but the point of this story is not my
time in petra per se
but rather the start of my friendship
with alex
because just a couple weeks later i flew
from guatemala city
alex flew from prague and we met in
buenos aires where we started a
three-week expedition around south
america together
and in those three weeks we impersonated
journalists to sneak into south
america’s most
revered tennis stadium and we indulged
ourselves in two more of the world’s
seven wonders christ the redeemer in
brazil and machu picchu
and peru and those are some of my most
cherished memories
and then just six months later alex and
i flew to australia
where i stayed in his home and met and
bonded with his friends
friends of friends
so again it would have been easy for me
to have gotten a good night’s sleep in
tel aviv that day
before making that 5am flight back to
the states
but sometimes it’s not the most logical
decisions
that gets you the most out of your yes
it’s about making yourself uncomfortable
and committing and embracing to all of
those feelings that that gives you
and so
theme three memories don’t belong to a
moment
they belong to you so once you make your
most special memories
you owe it to yourself to keep them and
so for the last anecdote i’ll share
i’ll go back to the end of 2019 where
just hours before new year’s
i was sitting at the dinner table with
steb and his family whom i had met
spontaneously
during that winter break trip in
melbourne australia
now just before we started eating dinner
seb’s father looked at me in the eyes
and raised his glass
offering a toast to new friendships
but the thing is that toast wasn’t just
for seb’s family and myself
it was for everyone who would welcome me
into their lives with open arms that
year
and it’s difficult to articulate but
when tapping glasses
memories flooded back to me those that i
wanted to hold on to dearly
those that had made me laugh that had
made me cry
and that had made me love and had i not
held on to those memories
kept in touch with all of those amazing
people
they wouldn’t have meant much at all
because they would have been lost
stolen from me by a moment but by
holding on tightly
i hold on to my time with cuhan in spain
when we snuck out of his tennis academy
and he crutched through the rustic
streets of palm de mayorka with a
sprained ankle
or with bongani and lesotho when we
drove through the guts of south africa
and ventured into one of the world’s
most remote countries
with kofi and manuel in mozambique who
were hitchhiking through the swaziland
desert when i found them and we drove to
their home city
of maputo
with emma kenny and sam in the cayman
islands who despite only knowing me for
a couple of weeks
invited me to swim alongside them in
stingrays in the caribbean
with joaquin and guatemala when we raced
atvs
up the mountains and through the
greenery of the old and beautiful
city with laks and cambodia
when we took tuk-tuks through the
capital of phnom penh
and then found zen in the royal palace
or with manu and his beautiful family in
the philippines
when we drove up the windy roads of
palawan to el nido
where we were surrounded by colossal
limestone cliffs
and crystal clear waters
now these are just a few of my most
cherished memories
but the truth is that i made hundreds
and i am a collection
of those memories
you own your memories
you assign your memory’s value
you are a collection of your memories
and so i know that not everyone will be
able to take a year off
or might even want to travel for that
matter
but what i do know is that everyone will
have the opportunity to take a leap of
faith
at some point and that leap of faith
will be different to everyone
it will be unique to you
and that’s beautiful in itself so just
know
that you’re one yes away from changing
the course of your life
your one uncomfortable moment away from
meeting a best friend
and you’re one toast away from reliving
your most cherished memories
thank you
you