2012, The End of the World: Sasha Smith

This summer, when I was picking my birthday beach vacation location, I decided to head back to Cancun, Mexico. Since I've been to Cancun many times before, I decided to have a more educational trip. I learned a lot about history and got the opportunity to visit one of the seven wonders of the world. I headed to Chichen Itza in the Yucatan Peninsula to visit one of the most famous Mayan cities. We made a few stops in this rural part of Mexico but of course the most exciting was visiting the Pyramids, one of the seven wonders of the world,  and hearing all the wonderful stories about the history of one of the smartest civilizations in the world. I was amazed at what I learned about Mayan inventions. The architecture of the Pyramids and other historical temples and structures was amazing and of course you could not be in Chichen Itza without talking about the Mayan calendar.

In Chichen Itza, the local Mayans explained to my group of girlfriends (that I convinced to meet me in Mexico), all the elaborate calculations of how the calendar was invented and it's functions and of course it's ending date of December 21, 2012. For a while, I must say it was rather convincing. The tour group was "ooooooohhing and aaaaaaawwwwing" every time the tour guide explained another wonderful fact about the calendar. They had me for a second and then reality settled in and I thought about the whole Y2K experience and how everyone was all caught up in the world coming to an end or everything being messed up. The Mayan calendar theory is no different. At the end the day we don't know when the world will come to an end. But I guess no one will be here to talk about it so we have to talk about it now. I am surprised at how well the movie did and how caught up folks are in believing the world is coming to end. I think that it has been a year of a lot of loss and people just want to know when to prepare themselves, but in reality you should be living your life to the fullest everyday like it's your last. It's certainly a lesson that I learned this year.

In regards to the world coming to an end in my lifetime... well it didn't start in my lifetime so it probably won't end in my lifetime.

Check out my picture above of me in the sweltering heat of Chichen Itza. I recommend everyone take a visit. Actually, December 21, 2012 will be the perfect day to visit. It will probably be the best light show (from the sun) that you've ever seen in your life.

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