"Like all great travelers, I see more than I remember and remember more than I see" - Read off an airport panel at the KI Airport.
 What better teacher could there be in the world than ourselves? Travel will teach you lessons about yourself and others that no one else can teach you. At least that’s what they tell you. But here’s my account on why. I met Jenny while in Singapore at the Green Kiwi Hostel. My first impression of her was that she was silent and didn't like me. But somehow, I felt as if there was something in her self-assured attitude that didn't quite fit with what I saw in her eyes. Some sort of mystery but also sensitivity. The following day I met her again in the living room of the hostel. As I saw one of her tattoos my curiosity couldn't be tamed any longer and I asked her about it. What followed were almost literally 2 hours of non-stop conversation about tattoos, life, spirituality and so many other topics. That day, we were stuck on chairs for hours as we realised what a great connection we had just made. So much even that I could barely leave to catch my plane. I’ll never forget this moment as it taught me once again that we should never judge a book by its cover. Jenny was deep and sensitive, and were it not for that one question I asked, I would have never seen the beautiful soul she was. When we are stuck on our first impressions, and stuck on ideas about people – it’s in asking better questions that we truly realise the beauty of each person. So when was the last time you asked something personal to a stranger?
 Hi was one of the local workers I had met while volunteering in the gili meno eco hostel with workaway. He was part of those kids who’d grown up with family in Lombok, but decided to move somewhere else for work. Whether it was to go look for work, or look for an escape, here became his new home.
He was known to be able to do anything and learn fast – be it to make the perfect bonfire, play ukulele, crack open bamboo in a split second, master poi, or catch fish and crabs - but he was also part of the kids who had grown up with cell phones and youtube. His English remained impressive as he mastered not only part of the language enough to interact with us, but also an English/Australian accent he had picked up from the many Australian travellers that had passed through the gili meno eco hostel. I soon picked up that around here, any local who mastered English enough was a sign that he had passed a mental frontier as he passed a linguistic one. Learning a language isn’t just about going to a class and picking up how to speak it. Here, if you mastered English, it was because you were in contact with foreigners. And in a vast country such as this one, this meant having either the luxury of it – or simply the open-mindedness. And Hi had in him a thirst to learn and do beyond frontiers that I recognised in all travellers.  As I encountered Felicia writing in her notebook I asked her what had brought her here in Gili Meno. Every year, leaving aside a job she worked very hard for, she allowed herself 3 weeks off away from the office, from her agenda, from people and from technology. It was hard to imagine her from that kind of world as her hair was drying in the sun and she wore but a sarong and seemed to blend perfectly in the surroundings of beaches, bamboo huts and a place that didn’t count with time.
What Felicia’s quote reflects on is that the way we look at things is always up to choice and up to how we want to look at them. When working in an office for instance - some people may look at things as impossible, while others may look at it like opportunities. When talking to a stranger, we may be on our guards – or we may look at them as a potential friend. How we look at anything is ultimately a question of mind frames and perception. We have in the end the power to perceive reality anyway we want to – and hence also act on it. So that is why any given that I look at something that appears difficult, I try to remind myself that I have the capacity to change that perception and no one else! Share this if you believe in change and self-development!  “Si tu aimes ton présent, ne regrette pas ton passé” (If you like your present, do not regret your past”)
“Il y a deux jours important dans sa vie : le jour où tu es né, et le jour où tu comprends pourquoi tu es né” (there are two important days in your life – the day you are born – and the day you understand why) Starting off as two solo travellers in South East Asia, they met by coincidence and soon became friends that decided to travel together. It’s beautiful to see when two strangers meet on the road, become friends and decide to go on an adventure together. In one conversation both of them were talking about the saturation of travelling for the sake of travelling… Somehow, the first 7 months of travel never make you question why you left. You travel for the sake of travel. And yet, by month number 7, comes a slight knock on the door of reality – the one that asks – “why and where are you heading dear friend?” It’s the knock of our consciousness in a way – as we have learned that everything in life needs a purpose, it is hard to travel (or do anything maybe) without a purpose. I think many of us head out to travel to find a way to cleanse ourselves of obligations and responsibilities, to see more clearly. And when one travels, all the opportunities to move in the directions and destinations you want are out there. We become the hitchhikers in a long story and confrontation with ourselves. Each stop or bump on the road serving as a lesson to be learnt. Perhaps that is why travelling offers us the best perspective to understand ourselves better and understand where we want to head to…first with our feet, and then with our hearts – because we are confronted to the blank canvas of ourselves. And by doing so, maybe we our offering ourselves the best way to be a better future for ourselves.  Have you ever felt like there is no job or place in the world for you to fit what you’re good at and what you’re passionate about?
The amazing thing about Leo was his modesty in regards to his various talents. There were few things Leo wasn’t good at, and he always shared his passion for music, good books and circus tricks with the rest of the people around. I came to meet a lot of people like Leo on my travels, who seemed to be so interested and good at everything – that in the end – they seemed to feel like they were advancing in nothing. He was a dreamer with a curious mind that hadn't found his place in a world that is too orientated for career monogamists. Sometimes I feel the same - but maybe I need to remind myself that we don’t always need to advance in the direction of what pays us a good career. Maybe, what pays off more is advancing in the direction of what makes us dream...And not the kind of dreams that make us crave for holidays or rest, but quite the opposite, the kind of dreams that keep you awake at night…Some of the biggest thinkers of today did something meaningful in this world not because they were chasing reality, but because they were chasing dreams I think - and Leo's quote is a hopeful reminder of that. |
"Last words for the Road" by Lauren KlarfeldBook-in-the-making : A collection of hand written quotes left by the people I met on the road (7 years and running) Archives
July 2021
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