Here we are, after almost four years away I have finally returned back to DA. A lot has changed and of course that is why I am here to let others know what has, will, and will be going to happen over the coming years. My days as a college student are numbered thanks to my last semester at Minnesota State University, Mankato. I will be graduating with a double major in International Business and Marketing, with Japanese language skills. (Oh, wait maybe people don't know about that) Well I studied abroad in Japan from April to August 2011 at Kwansei Gakuin University in Kobe. I graduated the International business and Japanese language program in August. However, beforehand I had been in Japan a few months prior; traveling to North and South Korea as well as China and across Japan from December 2010 up until school started. For those of you who may be asking me later, yes I was present in Japan during the 9.0 Earth quake. Lucky I was in Osaka miles away from the epicenter, but we could still feel it. Thankfully enough everything was alright in Osaka and everyone was very hospitable during my stay. If you have any questions please feel free to reply to the DA blog. You can also visit my blog here to see the events that took place: [link]

After arriving home I knew that my study abroad had changed everything about me and what I wanted to do. Yet, nothing back home changed. It was still the same friends, going to the same bars, watching the same movies, visiting the same locations. I don't know exactly how to describe it but its felt like almost everything was in stasis from when I left to when I returned. Something needed to change, and that something was what I wanted to do and be. Over the past couple of months back home I applied to 14 business related jobs, joined several clubs on campus, and decided to double major in Marketing. All of this is going great but there is something I keep thinking about. One single word: travel. A few weeks ago I was at my second interview with enterprise and all I could think about was "I hope I can work here" and where will this take me in the future. I couldn't get this idea out of my head of "What am I doing? Where am I going?" I didn't want to keep "hoping and waiting" for something good to happen. Alas, after all the adventures abroad and all the pondering for my next step I finally am planning it out and doing what I want.

When I first started blogging about my trip to East Asia, I kept coming across bloggers who are able to and travel around the world and have it paid for. I thought "why can't I do that?" so I have been planning to make a site and start uploading blogs and pictures. Here comes the part with you guys. I have over 10,000+ photos and hours of videos with pages of stories. However, I want to start from scratch and make a site to host all the blogs. I am not good with HTML and I know there are thousands of talented artists and IT people who can do it. But I am asking you the reader, do you know of anyone who could help me out? Another point to make is that I want this to be for you the viewer. What gets you excited about traveling? Where would you "want" to go? What would you do there? All these questions and more are things I want to address throughout my travels. In order to get this off the ground, I do need the help of the DA community, possibly, and all friends, family, and viewers. I also need to raise money but that will come with later blogs down the path.

To show you I am serious I will be posting about 100 or so new photos for viewers to see my travels and uploading a video for viewers to see on YouTube. Please be sure to check out my earlier blogs (linked above) and let me know your comments and ideas! I will continue to post new blogs and pictures on DA until I can learn out how to make a travel blog site. Personally, thank you for the all those who have read this particular blog, it's tough going for something you want but no matter who you are or where you come from, you can do it. I didn't think I would graduate college, now I'm graduating with a double major. I never thought I would study abroad, yet I traveled East Asia for 8 months. I never thought I could stop hoping for things to happen and instead just do it, well that my friends I just did.

Thank you,
Brian Doyle