““Even on my weakest days I get a little bit stronger” ”
As I sit in the airport waiting for my flight to Medellin.. I can’t help but to think how lucky I am to have had all of the challenges, rock bottoms, disappointments, and failures I have experienced in the last 3 decades of my life. Everything has led me to this place. 7 days removed from my 31st birthday I can honestly say that I have matured and have exponentially grown in the last 4 years of my life faster than I could have ever imagined or thought possible. Yet I still find it difficult to control the way I react in certain situations. I am writing this entry as a response to a picture that showed up on my news feed. It was of someone I loved, who I now consider someone that I used to know.. It was a picture of her and her current partner, it evoked a visceral response, as soon as I saw the picture without even thinking about it, my fight or flight instincts kicked in, my face turned white, my knees got weak, and I just wanted to run… don’t know where, why, how.. but that’s aII I wanted to do. I read somewhere that anytime you feel unhappy the quickest fix is to start being grateful for what you have.. So that a what I am doing.. and you know what… it works… I quickly reminded myself that I am sitting at an airport thousands miles away from the projected 6-8 inches of snow that is supposed to fall tomorrow recovering from my sunburn that I got days earlier.. I remind myself that I am in a country where the average person makes $5k a year… I remind myself that I am traveling with a friend who is fluent in Spanish and makes traveling fun.. I remind myself that everything bad that has ever happened in my life wasn’t bad at all.. I’ve just been labeling it as bad.. in fact they were lessons meant to teach me that life no matter how difficult, how painful, and how at that very moment of pain feels like it will last forever…. it won’t.. it’s temporary just like life… so the pain, the heartache, the happiness, its all a chain of temporary emotions that are there to remind us to be grateful for where we are in life.. to grow and to evolve into more aware beings to heighten the experiences of life and to not attach myself to what I see as anything more than that.. a picture, which someone posted… At some point I plan to chronicle my life in a way where others can learn from my mistakes… even though sometimes I made the same mistake over and over again before I was able to understand the lesson.. So I guess this post is in part therapy for me and some part inspiration to others…
Given that this blog is intended for travel… I guess I should incorporate some highlights of Cartagena. This is the first country I have visited in South America… and it’s been pretty cool… The biggest take away has been the notion of simplicity that is prevalent throughout the culture here.. As I walked around at night I couldn’t help but appreciate the way people enjoy life here. I walked by a working class neighborhood around rush hour.. as people were waiting for their busses, I noticed a large group of people forming a circle hysterically laughing.. not having seen such a phenomenon before.. we decided to investigate.. it turns out there’s a guy there who on a daily basis performs stand up comedy in a public square.. I couldn’t help but appreciate the fact that this guys sole job is to make people laugh after they are done a hard days work… it was pretty cool to see his comedy transcend a variety of audiences, from dirty construction workers to the suits who sit behind a desk all day… together, in unison they shared in this guys comedy… This put a smile on my face..
That same evening, we walked by another neighborhood where an eclectic group of tourists and locals were just hanging out in front of a church watching young kids play soccer, using religious statues as makeshift goal posts, while enjoying a cold beer or a hot Colombian Tinto coffee. The innocence of a kids soccer game was able to transcend income, cultural, and language barriers brought me to the realization that we often value the wrong things in life.. it's these experiences that make me appreciate how so many, who have so little, enjoy life and take so much in the simple pleasures of a soccer game.
I think my ramble will end for now….
Thanks for reading…and being a part of my journey.