if traveling teaches you lessons
about life, as i believe it does, clearly the lesson here is things don’t
always go according to plan. it was mid-april and i had been in my beloved
colombia 10 days when i received an email that a job i applied for at a
non-profit in richmond wanted to interview me…in person. to say booking that
ticket was painful doesn’t even begin to describe it. i’d just arrived in a
country i really loved, was just getting back into the swing of traveling after
spring break, and the unexpected happened. kind of like life. i know i didn’t
have to book the ticket and believe me, i thought about not booking it…a
lot. but some friends reminded my dreamer self of just how bleak the job
market really is, so i decided i should at least get on a plane.
and so, two days later my travels
came to an unexpected end. since i’ve been back had a lot of time for
reflection—about what i learned, what i want to change in my life as a result
of traveling, what i still fail to understand about the world. and so, here
they are, some of my lessons learned. i hope in some small way maybe they’ll be
of benefit to you, too.
go alone (if you must). would i have loved to share this
experience with someone i knew prior to traveling? no doubt. but since my
options were travel solo or don’t go, i opted for solo. traveling alone forced
me to be more open to new people and experiences and even have some time (okay,
a lot of time) to think about what it is i want in life. it can be scary
traveling or doing anything alone. do it anyways.
life is all about choices. not making a choice is also
a choice. this may be the greatest lesson i learned. so many of us are
trapped in our own mind’s or societal expectations of our what are and what are
not viable options at particular points in our lives. most often, all we have
to do is make a different choice. and lucky for us, most of us are privileged
enough to do so. not that these choices are often easy to make, but i do
believe we should make choices, as my friend ari says, that are “life-giving.”
life really is too short to surround yourself with people and situations that
aren’t beneficial to your well-being.
life is meant to be enjoyed,
not endured. i
think sometimes we pride ourselves on what we sacrifice as a badge of honor of
how much we are committed to something. academics do this with the amount of
hours worked; activists do it with how much they’ve sacrificed for “the cause”;
and backackers do it to prove how hard core they are. i felt really happy and
free on this trip. coming back i am no longer willing to keep myself in
situations that don’t make me happy (see above lesson about making different
choices). we are created to enjoy life and i plan to not to just endure it.
poverty is relative. to know 80% of the world lives on
less than $2 per day and then to see what that looks like are two vastly
different things. i am honestly still grappling with this, although struggling
is probably the more appropriate term. i know there are poor people in the
united states, but it is not the same. those are the only words i seem to be
able to find to describe it, it is not the same. and i am not quite sure what
to do about it.
people are the same everywhere. most people, most places, are just
trying to provide a decent living for themselves and their families, and maybe
have a little fun along the way. people may look a little different or go about
doing things differently to achieve the same goal, but most of us share common
struggles and goals. so please don’t believe the (media) hype about
certain countries. my two favorite countries (nicaragua and colombia) would
have likely been at the top of the media hype list. i've never met nicer people
anywhere. as with anything in life, don’t take someone else’s word, go
experience it for yourself.
so,
that’s it. i'm back in the united states and in richmond for the summer at
least. so no more blogging till i figure out some other extended adventure to
go on (i hear southeast asia is fantastic). and since i love quotes, i’ll end
with this one by wade davis which encapsulates the beauty and treasure of what
traveling teaches me: “the world in which you were born in is just one model of
reality. other cultures are not failed attempts at being you. they are unique manifestations of
the human spirit.”
