[MMM]

If you can get a phone for 130 dollars, that isn't so bad.

But at nineteen needing to talk to your mother every day?

Everyone has their own thing. But my suspicions were right it seems, so the question is, how deep down the rabbit hole do you want to go?

What's the point of throwing yourself into a personal challenge, a walkabout, a rite of passage, if your "Escape Free" button is sitting in your pocket, 24-7.

If you want to go to Japan for a month...GO TO JAPAN FOR A MONTH.

I only say it in this direct way because, since my suspiscions were correct, my guess is that, indeed, your vacation will be cut short.

I have a friend who married a woman from California several years ago and now they live where I do in the Northwest. She has several siblings, but her "exodus" to a different state was almost seen as a betrayal. To put it briefly, her mother has been "on her death-bed" at least a half dozen times in the last couple years, requiring quick trips home or extended Christmas trips that go into the middle of January because mom "can't bear to see you go".

Imagine this. Imagine you COULD get a phone for 130 dollars. And you could talk to your mom every day. You might be eating breakfast or going to a club or visiting a temple or whatever. Phone rings. Phone rings. Phone rings.

Now imagine NOT having that phone. Imagine having the freedom of visiting Tokyo without knowing the phone could ring at any moment calling you back home.

I am not saying you don't or shouldn't love your mother...I would never be so crude... but you are 95% on the way to a life and mind-expanding experience. Save 130 dollars and take yourself to 100%.