Time to Decide.

when you live half your life enclosed in a spacecraft you find that things like jet lag aren't so much of a problem anymore.

Take for instance, the way a person may feel when up at the north pole of a planet. Some people are often a bit put off by the long days or nights.

Myself, I found a nice little planet that has a perfect 90 degree axis to its sun. This allows for this place up north that is always at sunset - or sunrise if you prefer. Great climate: tropical poles.

Lately, I've been preferring the sunset...makes it feel like the party is always just getting started, or that you've always gotten off work just a few hours ago.

I even simulate this time while on the spacecraft.

I find it amazing how many people there are out here. I guess that earth just gives every person that is born a spacecraft. The sheer number of people out here is a testament to that.

I am one of the oldest ones now...at least one of the earliest travelers. I do find people who have been making short hops, and thus have made many more visits that I have yet. These people have already spent their 200 or so years of life running about the near planets.

The roaming charge on these visits is mere decades.

Myself, I've decided to take the half-century jumps. Get further out there, you know. Interstellar travel is a reality, well then lets make it to some stellar distances.

A thousand or so years have passed since I left earth. This current planet is my 20th jump. To bad it's such a dump though. Hell of a way to spend this momentous distance in time.

Well now, its getting time to decide.

I am now nearly 1k light years from Earth. I could head straight back right now and get there 2k years after I left.

Or, I could take another route back and spend my last 100 years enjoying the journey back.

Or, of course, I can just keep on going. I could become one of the explorers. I could forsake anything close to my present world and venture out into the complete unknown.

Of course, with this last option, the chance of going back to Earth approaches zero.

But to see the universe of a million years from now. To see the people - if they are still around (and it looks like they are here to stay).