"The world has changed me"

One year ago today, I embarked on this adventure that will last a lifetime.  I'm not going to recount what I have accomplished this year as I have already done that in my 2012: A year in Review blog.  What I am going to talk about though is the strength it takes to decide and follow through with such an experience.

Earlier this morning, I updated my facebook status with exactly this topic.  A friend responded I am brave for embarking on such a journey.  I've heard this many times from many people since my initial move abroad to Scotland in 2004.  I truly appreciate the sentiments, but I also feel it's not quite bravery, but decisiveness and desire and ability to put everything behind you and just go.  Saying that, even having the ability to put everything behind you isn't exactly true.  With the way our world operates now, the speed and access of global communication, social media, and the ever-growing presence of Western civilization in Third World countries, I personally don't feel like everything is behind me, it's actually in front of me - staring me in the face on my computer.

Partaking in this adventure, is more like following through with a dream.  Travelling changes a person.  You no longer view the world through one-dimension.  Rather, it propels you into this need to see and experience everything.  The cost doesn't matter, because the end result is priceless.  Experiencing that glorious, soul-lifting feeling of participating in such an event like Loi Krathong, or having your eyes well up with tears the first moment you glimpse the majestical structure that is Angkor Wat - no person can ever take that away.  Moments like those are completely unforgettable.  Five, ten, 15 years down the road (heck, even a month later) you don't remember how much you spent on that airplane ticket to get there, you don't remember your favourite restaurants that you miss, or TV programmes, or material possessions you left behind.  They don't matter.  What does matter is that you will never forget the smell of the air, the sounds, the friends you made - even if they're just those momentary friends - and how your soul was uplifted to a heightened level that only travel and culture can bring. 

A year ago, I decided those feelings and moments were more important to me than anything else.  All it takes to set out on a journey is the desire to feel these moments and the decision to let everything else go - if only for a short term.  Me?  I'm in it for the long haul.  That's what travelling has done (I have a tendency to associate my addiction with travel as an addiciton to a drug, unstoppable and - sometimes - expensive, without the damaging physical effects.  Once hooked, you will find any means to keep going).  I have since learned - twice - that going home after living abroad, I become bored.  Within minutes.  So utterly bored, that I idly pass the time by planning my next escape.  Yes, I use the term 'escape' as I have found my "home" feels more like a prison term on the best of days. 

If you have ever thought about seeing someplace new, stop thinking and start going.  Start out short term - 1, 3, 6 months, a year even.  I started out on a 5 month journey in 2004 to Scotland.  That started a 4 year adventure in England from 2006.  Now I'm in Southeast Asia for I-don't-know-how-long.  There are so many places I need to see - I absolutely must go back to Cambodia, Philippines, Indonesia, see more of Myanmar than just the border town of Mae Sai, Malaysia, Vietnam, India...then I need to make my way to Africa to climb Kilimanjaro (an excursion I still hope is possible with my ankle injury), I need to see the whole of South America - especially Chile, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, and Columbia.  Then there is Costa Rica, Guatemala, Belize....I'm sure you get the picture. 

Again, I can't reiterate how living abroad is not necessarily bravery (I suppose there is an element of bravery in there), but you just need to decide and go.  Everything will be waiting for you when you get back.  None of it will have changed, but I guarantee you will have.

To quote one of my heroes and definite wonder woman, Amelia Earhart, "The world has changed me."  Indeed it has.