Ever wanted to just get out scream, pack up your bags and leave? Just a new site a new face, the thrill and wonder of a new city and culture and language just ready to swallow you whole and let you forget about your problems?
Sorry to break it to you, but your problems will be coming with you.
You’re still sort of, having to live with yourself. The beach, the mountain the next new sacred place is not going to magically fix all your problems. There is the benefit of a new environment to contrast with you your patterns, your self-identity but you’re still in the end, going to be bringing yourself. At the very least you need to like spending time with yourself.
I feel this so viscerally when I’m around people who travel for a sense of status or fashion. Everything is surface level or a one-upmanship with your fellow human. You’re in a different country, sure, but you’re not really here. like HERE here. How much do you really appreciate the foliage and the cultural dance – or were you just taught to look life you appreciate it? in the name of “culture”.
I ask of you one thing to try today.
Up to you if you’re up to the challenge.
Experience and see your day to day life as if it were entirely NEW. as if it were reborn, as if it didn’t exist yesterday, as if this is an aliean planet and you don’t understand water. If you can’t wrap your head around that, imagine your a lottery winning transfer student who gets to live ” T H I S P A R T I C U L A R – L i f e E x p e r i e n c e” and just see your surroundings as if you were a foreigner who only knew the opposite.
For me that would be pretending I’m an excessively privileged white male from Europe at awe with how cheap everything is and how much people there are in manila. The energy of these crowds, tropical sun and bluest skies. An island country, full of wondrous beaches and waterfalls. The music of the local tongue, the swing and roll and the charming insecurity of their mixed past. I’d feel like a damn king with how cheap labor is and coconut water. I’d get massages all the time and make people’s day by being that tall guy in the basketball game.
I’d fall in love, appreciating my win at the lottery and just basking an experience I’d leave from after my two year study stay. I’d drink in every smile, every laugh, every story. I’d wake up with a sense of adventure, slightly restless, a bit insane. I’d live right at the precipice knowing this was worth 10jillion dollars and that I have to spend it all. I’d look at more sunsets and scream at more things.
I dare you to be this person for one day.
And tell me about your country! I’d love to hear you guys in the comments/thru mail. What beauty did you dare to see in the “mundane.” And how much you’ve had the zest of travel punched in your Everyday…
Take care heart – Maalia
Maria Mison 