Traveling is no easy task. One has to be willing to let go and say goodbye.
This blog is the adventure journal of Shelly and myself. Our experiences, our trials, our triumphs, and most of all our mood wall.
It may not be every-ones cup of tea, but it sure as hell will be their shot of Tequila.
Before traveling I was stuck in a rut. I was leading the average mediocre life, doing everything by the book. Studying straight out of high school, settling into my career, working hard for 6 years to get promoted to something I should have been proud of. Working a nine to five job, settling down in a relationship, career sorted. You'd think that would be every-ones dream right? Not mine!
One morning in 2011 I woke up gasping for air, sweating profusely and feeling claustrophobic. I woke up this way every morning for months until I thought enough was enough. I couldn't do it anymore. I had realized that my average life had taken it's toll and smothered my inspiration for something more. It was a turning point in my life - coming to terms with the fact that my zest for life had been buried under a heap of the 'norm.'
I had thought about traveling, but the leap had always been daunting. Fear blanketed my thoughts. Leaving behind the comfort of a life I had come to accept and of course leaving behind friends and family was an upsurge I found myself not being able to make. And then I realized that if I didn't make wind of an opportunity, I'd be settling for the rest of my life. I'd go through the motions of this so-called life and end up with mounts of regrets, feeling lost and empty.
So I made an executive decision that changed my life forever. And three months later I was standing on a ship, cruising the Californian coast, the ocean breeze whisping through my hair, watching, in awe, as the setting sun danced across the turquoise expanse of endless possibilities.
Finally I could breathe! I could think! I could taste opportunity! And I had vision.
Never had my eyes seen such beauty. Never had my mind been challenged so, and never had my heart been so filled with hope and faith. To not experience or know beauty like that of a world we are not familiar with is a truly sad state, a devastation. The Californian Coast, the Mexican culture, the Alaskan glaciers, the old world charm of Victoria, British Columbia - had me in awe. The artistry and refinement of these adventures I had pursued were endless, spell-bounding. I had fallen in love with a travelers life - my life.
But as life goes, a day came when I found my chest constricting and panic rose up to my throat - asphyxiating me. The first time being away from family and friends, alone on the opposite end of the world was overwhelming to say the least and through the midst of my anxiety I found a piece of the puzzle that was me. Albeit I didn't last the first round, I had no regrets. The personalities I came across, the new world I had discovered, would never be taken away from me. Two months of being at sea was a miracle in my eyes - a rare opportunity that most people do not take advantage of.
And so I found myself back on land in a country I loathed. The monotonous life settled back in comfortably and I quickly fell back into the same routines - always pleasing people and putting every-ones happiness above my own. I didn't realize at the time that the person that needed my support the most was me.
I was there, in South Africa, going through the motions of the daily life I had thoughtlessly chosen for myself, but I had left my heart wondering aimlessly through a celestial sphere of an undiscovered adventurous world - waiting patiently for me to claim my fate, my journey.
I had come back to a man, to friends, to my family. But I was prejudice and treated them unfairly. They needed me, my boyfriend needed me, but shamelessly I had nothing to give. I was not able to be there. I no longer knew how to be there. I was a ghost of a woman with a fire burning deep within, threatening to erupt.
He would stare at me, hoping I'd come back to him, waiting to feel my love. But what he didn't know was that my heart had found a new lover, a new adventure, a new life. My imprisoned soul had a taste and was begging for more. Travel had now become my drug, and I could not, would not give up my addiction for anyone or anything. I tried to show him as much as I could possibly muster up, but in doing so I broke him. I tore out his heart, and lay it bare, before him, crushing his soul. A time, in my life, that I regret and wish I could have handled differently. He was undeserving of such ill-treatment and I was selfish. I realize now that the longer you try to fix something that is broken, the more it splinters, until there is nothing left to fix.
To this man, who know who you are, I am truly sorry that I could not give you all of me when you needed it the most.
And so I convinced my best friend over a glass of red wine, one night at a Cuban bar, to take a leap and travel with me to the Land of Smiles - to enrich our lives, and the lives of others.
We were, and still are two against the world - the black sheep of our conformed society - because we did what other's fear to do. We said goodbye and didn't look back.
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