I think it's high time I reflected a bit on my past and current walkabout experience.

It surprises me how much I actually gained from my third quarter walkabout in DC. At least once every couple days I notice myself either using something I learned there, thinking about something I was told there, or else just pushing myself forward because of my experience there. My mentors definitely went out of their way to make sure I didn't forget what I was supposed to learn. Well, I would say one did. He would sit in his chair and just talk for half-an-hour about stuff that I needed to do when I got back home and how to do it. The other would drill the stuff he knew into me in ways that I could not describe in writing. Lets just say it was a huge source of aggravation during my time there. But I'm guessing that it was effective none the less.
Whatever the two of them did to me, I would say it has stayed with me pretty well. I think about my experience there all the time, and I often notice how it affects my behaviour, decisions, and mentality.

As for my second walkabout, I don't think I could think of anything that would be better for me. Perhaps I've already said this, but I've never been one to think much about college. It's always been a monster sitting in silence off on the horizon line, growing bigger as I walked towards it, but never saying much. So now I've taken a substantial step towards it, and I realize it's not as bad as I expected. It isn't too different from high school, the biggest difference being that I don't have as personal a connection to people as I did in high-school. I'm definitely going to miss high-school because of that. I already do.