After all, I’m glad I decided to take this road trip because it’s made me a much more capable driver, a more cautious driver and a much savvier traveler.

I have experienced a backpacking party culture to an extent I didn’t know existed, observed the strangest mating ritual I’m sure ever took place between two people in a dormitory, saw incredible landscape and confronted myself: my terror, my inferiority complex. I’m a different person.