I have no idea how different my life will be after this.

When I get home, I will spend a lot of time talking to a lot of people about volcanoes.  One of my photos from Llaima will be published on the cover of a magazine.  I will read thick books about plate tectonics and how the earth was formed.  I will buy a pull-up bar and join a rock climbing gym. I'll run a half-marathon in the Smokey mountains. I will complete a week-long scuba diving course and get my open water diver certification. I'll film ultra marathon trail races in the southeast and run across ridge lines in the Canadian Rockies. Nine months from now my job will send me to South America again - to document a research expedition in the Galápagos Islands. I'll attend a professional science writing workshop and a photography symposium on wildlife conservation.  I will document a high altitude balloon launch at a NASA base in New Mexico. I'll learn how to fly drones. I will swim, dive, run, hike, and climb as often as possible. I will challenge myself again and again -  to the point of complete exhaustion. I will not stop.