The trees whistle as the soft dusk air slides through them with a brush of a finger. The ocean retreats the beaches sand with each wave, tenderly taking pieces with it. The bird’s float below the tranquility of the sunrise, climbing with the sun as it begins to bloom. The archway leading towards the ocean captures the sun directly in the middle, as if it were the missing piece to an unsolved puzzle.
Travelling, the best teacher that life can offer you. I sat two stories high, breathing in the air the ocean wind kept pushing towards me and I had never felt so refreshed, so revitalized. There are no words that could ever describe what traveling does for you, whether it be a resort, backpacking, visiting family across the world – it plucks at a part within yourself you couldn’t reach otherwise.
Life throws some heavy obstacles at you, it tests your patience, how much physical and emotional pain you can endure, how lucky and happy you can feel but how quickly it can take it away – it tests it all. The best thing yet though, is that you are responsible for it – when we say “I’ve had a bad day,” we tend to reflect more towards the negatives within the day in comparison to the few positives you still encountered. We say, “I just have bad luck,” meanwhile you’re choosing to perceive what is occurring as bad luck when it could easily be turned around all based upon what you choose to recognize. We say were tired, or exhausted because we didn’t get the 8 hours of sleep we wanted that night – but you’re not appreciating the fact that you actually got to sleep that night. To sleep feeling safe, loved, fortunate.
So, you have a bad day – that doesn’t mean you have a bad life. So you got 5 hours of sleep, at least you slept safe and well fed. You say you have bad luck? Then start doing something to turn that luck around for you. Every time I travel, I recognize more and more how fortunate I am. I realize how petty it is to be bitter, upset, or emotional about something so insignificant in life – when there are real life problems much bigger then us all. You broke your cellphone, but you have a phone. Gas prices went up, yet you have a car to drive. You don’t have any money left in your bank account for coffee in the morning, yet you have the option to put your money into that.
For anyone who has travelled, you understand the empty feeling that engulfs you when you return home. No, I’m not talking about the annual “vacation depression,” I’m referring to the concept that you reformed while you went away. There is such an emptiness that lives inside it is impossible to pinpoint, almost near impossible to resolve without travelling again – in fact you can’t get rid of it until you venture out even further then your previous experience. The hunger that lives within fuels the craving for a constant taste in a different culture, people, country, and environment.
The question that has left me unable to answer is whether when you travel -are you leaving pieces of yourself behind or are you creating and discovering new pieces within yourself? This remains to be a discovery of its own. Some people will understand it, others will think you’re crazy, unrealistic, too much of a dreamer – but they’ll never understand it in the way you do. With each travel experience, you come closer and closer to finding the answer within that puzzle, but the best part is – only you can solve it.
The Dreamer 