“Later.”
The greeting of choice for a generation. No matter how far the distance it fits. Jon was leaving for a year and that’s as creative as it got. A friend forged through miserably cold days on mountainsides throughout the Intermountain West; and equally miserable mornings couch-bound throughout that same Intermountain West.
Jon Jay is one of the smartest people, period. He is also a beast on snow and dirt. Mr. Jay should be your hero. Right now he is halfway around the world in Kazakhstan, chasing down a dream. Jon has been hungry for years, longing to explore and to push the limits of his world. When he said he was going to serve abroad in Kazakhstan and bag first ascents/descents in mountains halfway around the world, few doubted him. He moved less than two weeks ago to teach English at a university and to explore the Altai mountains (wiki link here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altai_Mountains). Huge mountains in a land most of us have only heard of through Borat.
He left his hometown of Glenwood Springs, CO to travel to the last Soviet republic to declare itself independent of the former USSR, in search of a dream. Jon is living his dream, finding himself deep in the mountains, in situations involving skis, ice axes, hard plastic boots two sizes to small, and sub-zero temperatures. To must of us it sounds like some sort of sick-perversion of a dream, but it is what he loves and it is what he is chasing down at a rate most of us would be lucky to ever move at.
Jon knew what he wanted, he thought it through long before he graduated, and he did it. Everyone hears about these people, but it always seems to be out of a fairy tale. He is actually living abroad for a year, hungrily awaiting those first snowflakes. It’s motivating.
“Later.” That’s all I could muster. I vaguely hinted at the sense of pride I had in calling Jon a friend with a two syllable sign-off. So this is what I’ve resorted to, trying to put some words behind a friend that deserves a better description.
Jon, only one last thing, just remember when you finally start to ease your hunger by getting out into those peaks, to say grace before you eat.
insearchofthedream 
Reblogged this on Jon Jay's Travels and commented:
My great friend Jon put this up nearly a month ago, not long after I arrived in Kazakhstan. The dude is a simply amazing writer, so I’m honored and touched that he wrote about this trip I’m on. You should definitely subscribe to his blog right now. I’m sending good vibes that he has a great winter back in Colorado and wherever he travels to, which will inevitably be awesome. Who knows? Maybe I’ll get to ski those Altai Mountains with him.