Today, I have it bad, the travel bug has returned and bitten me hard. My desperate desire, and need to go see this amazing world that we live in, means it’s hard for me to not feel just a bit bitter that I’m not on safari in Africa, the ski slopes of Switzerland, the banks of the Nile, or atop a skyscraper in New York.
I could go on for hours….in fact when people ask me where I’d most like to visit I refuse to answer because in all honesty my only answer can be the world, the whole of it in its entirety, I want to go everywhere. And on days like this all I can see is reminders that I’m not and have no plans to be anytime soon, a talk about refugee support in Syria, a photo of my time in Africa, my friends plans for volunteering in Tanzania.
And sometimes, on days like this it gets a bit insufferable. My want to travel but my knowledge of my own reality. That I’m not in Africa, I’m in the cotswolds, and as pretty as the fields and hills are, they’re no desert, safari, or crystal clear ocean.
But that’s one things I love about this charity. I can connect to these places without having to purchase a plane ticket. I can talk to Sarah about the kids in the convenant homes in India, I can email Donata. I can correspond with dozens of contacts worldwide. I can ask them how they are how I can help, even from my living room in the Cotswold’s. I can make a tangible difference without being there in person.
Just after writing the first part of this post I stumbled across this picture. And it summed up all I was trying to say but struggling to find the words to. It’s not saying that you can’t have this desire to travel (which is good because I don’t think I can get rid of it anytime soon!!!) or to go other places. Its saying that sometimes you need to accept that you are where you are, and be all there.
Go for it, be a 100% there. I always say I’m a big fan of keenness, so be keen, be enthusiastic those things have never been bad things! Learn to love the place you’re in (not a home makeover reference), and for as long or short as you’re in that place be 100% there don’t live a half life wasting half your time not really being here but having your head somewhere across the world or up in the clouds. Allow yourself to dream whilst going for it where you are right here in the now.
So today, whilst I can completely without abandon say I would rather be back in Zambia teaching in schools, or whizzing down the slopes in the alps I am happy to be here, at least for this season. I know that a-levels are only a period of my life, and that stands for everyone it’s just a season, so don’t waste it wishing it away.
Be here, 100% and learn to love the small things that make up the here and now, whilst being exciting for bigger and better things to come.
ANDYS BEAT! 