I can’t remember if I heard it, or if I read it, perhaps someone just told me but it was the best possible advice at the right time.

Sometime after Neil Armstrong returned from the moon a reporter asked him if there was anything he regretted about his trip. ” Yes”, he replied “I wish I had looked out the window a little more”. He went on to describe how he was so consumed with the mission that he rarely looked out a small window just above is head.

Shortly after hearing this I left Ireland in January of 2002 and backpacked around the globe until finally settling in New York in July 2003. I remembered what Neil Armstrong had said and I made sure to stop and look out the window a little more along the way. It may sound a little over dramatic but constantly moving and living from a backpack, sleeping on buses, trains or in dodgy motels it’s easy to be blind to life going on around you. No matter how stressed or lost I always took time to stop and take it all in. I bought a camera and took pictures as often as I could. Someday I’ll upload them and bore the hell out of everybody, yes there’s that many.

I’m very headstrong and focused. When I set my mind on something I can get a little blinkered to everything around me at times. Thankfully I still manage to adhere to Neil’s response to the reporter’s question to this day. I don’t regret a single thing about my trip, I feel I took in all I possibly could. I made time to stop and look out the window and have beautiful memories because of it. I have Neil Armstrong and his words of wisdom to thank for that.  

From stardust to stardust, Neil Armstrong. RIP.

Moon Through Apollo Window