Entry 1

Well, I'm on my way folks!

I'll be the first Texan to enter the Inter-Planetary Congress. My ship departed just moments ago, and I'll be entering hypersleep when I finish this entry. Seven years will pass in a blink after that and I'll wake up when we dock at Ekon, the host planet for the IPC.

My logs, beginning with this one, will be primarily for the benefit of the IPC to understand political relations between my young nation and our mother nation, America. It's interesting to think that the nation I'll represent will have tripled in age by the time I begin my term of service. In fact, the IPC is taking quite a risk inviting me before our nation's fifteenth birthday. That's usually the custom: wait to invite a representative until their space travel time will not double the country's age. Apparently the representative from my neighbor to the south put in more than a few good words for the stability of my nation after our successful cessation from the American Union.

I can't wait to discover what my nation is like when I get to Ekon. I know it now as a thriving and eager country excited to stand up among the other nations on earth, but I hope it will stabilize as a country known for valuing human dignity above and beyond the bureaucratic monstrosity from which we seceded. I'm also hoping that America learns from our example and begins to weed out the systematic abuse of the homeless and handicapped.

So that's the start of my journey, and I'll write again once I've checked into Congress.

God bless,

J. J.