A year ago today, I was hopping on a flight to leave home for six months, travelling and studying in the UK/Europe. Nothing is like home, the past year has taught me that, but the memories I have of that time away, the people I met, the places I saw…it never ceases to spring to mind with absolute clarity. There’s an odd feeling on returning that nothing can be the same. I suppose nothing is the same, I’d changed as a person by the time I was home. But I treasure those experiences, memories, conversations, moments, even if I feel a keen sense of loss, for their serendipity, for the way things fell into place, and worked out just fine. Be adventurous, I told myself, and I really was.
It was hard to reset on returning, my life away sometimes felt like a completely different life, and I really threw myself back into life at home and realised very quickly it was not especially sustainable, nor particularly healthy (physically and mentally), nor want I truly wanted. And there were those feelings of losing my freedom – from responsibilities, from home/family (even as I found a home/family elsewhere), from the wonderment of travel. So, I took last month off to really take things slow, take opportunities to reset, take time to think and reprioritise. To find, not disenchantment, but to find the appeal in the familiar, to find the freshness in the ordinary. Calling to mind Alain de Botton’s The Art of Travel; the real lesson of travelling is upon return, in approaching home with fresh eyes.
As it also turns out, we’re 20 weeks away from a new decade. I happen to think any day is a good day to start over or to make a fresh start. But, looking forward, this really seems like as good a time as any to return to those always existential questions, of life, of beauty, of art, of purpose, of fulfilment, of joy and happiness, of wisdom, of truth. To live life to the fullest, not take anything for granted, and to take chances, always. To live adventurously. To live for a higher purpose, for God, with faith, hope, and love. As I did while travelling. That’s what this Mapiful poster hanging above my bed reminds me of.
-nat 🥀♥️