Do It December

It’s been just over half a year since I left home to travel. In the past six months, I have endured the trials and tribulations that come along with leaving home and the comfort of security.

There are different levels of ‘bravery’ though. The kids in my class who decided to go to college right away, the kids in my class who decided to enlist in the military, the kids in my class who decided simply to take a break.

It feels almost wrong to try and write a post about how I feel I’ve been brave, so I’ll do my best to speak objectively here. Graduating from a small school (33 kids in my graduating class) and being the only person to decide to take a year off to go travel I suppose you could say I was being ‘brave.’ I had no idea where exactly I’d be or who I’d meet or how I’d even get by. It was frightening to say the least. And there have certainly been times where I’ve had to use this so-called bravery to not give up on my travels.

I recall a specific day I had where I left my travel partner Aidan in Germany to go visit Scotland. We decided that we would meet back up in Belgium, but since my flight roundtrip would be cheaper to fly to and from Frankfurt, I booked a bus ticket from Frankfurt to Brussels. My flight was delayed, my bus was delayed, and my transfer bus was delayed. Once I finally made it to Brussels, it was 2 AM and the train station was closed — I had to wait 3 hours out in the cold until it opened up again. I remember standing in the rain at the bus stop for 2 hours and just completely breaking down, thinking of how much I missed my bed and just being able to have a home.

But, through that I persevered & I am so glad that I did. I wouldn’t have gotten to meet all the amazing people that I have or seen the amazing things that I have or learned all the practical skills that I have.

In terms of kindness, I would much like much more to speak on how people have been kind to me and how that has encouraged me to ‘pay it forward.’ The biggest act of random kindness I had the pleasure of encountering happened whilst I was working in Lithuania. It was November, the ground had been covered in snow & I had no work/snow boots. I went to the grocery store with the other volunteers and my host wearing my 5 year old ratty Converse. A Lithuanian man who spoke not a single word of English tapped me on the shoulder and gestured for me to follow him to the shoe aisle. He proceeded to take a pair of snow boots and measured them against my feet. He hurried along, gesturing me to follow him to the checkout counter. This man, who I had never met before, bought me these snow boots and then gave me a hug. Even thinking about this act of kindness now brings tears to my eyes.

When I left Europe, I no longer had a need for the snow shoes, as I would be spending the rest of my months in South East Asia. So, I returned this act of kindness to a sweet homeless lady outside of the Helsinki airport. Along with this random act of kindness, there has also been the kindness that I’ve received from my host families. The fact that they are willing to open their homes to me and provide me shelter and meals is beyond words. I am so grateful to have experienced this.

Above all, the thing that has helped me to grow as a person has been failure. Accepting failure is not always easy, and I won’t lie, it’s something that I struggle with. Admitting that I’m wrong or that I’ve done something wrong is hard for me. I think the most influential experience I had in this regard has been concerning friendship. Being a military brat, it’s not common for me to make friendships that last beyond 3 years. Aidan, my travel partner for the past 6 months was one of the only people that I have been able to maintain a friendship longer than 4 years for. I think I took his patience for granted in the time that we traveled together. Being a very emotional person & taking out my feelings on him is something that I now know he had to endure.

The only thing I can do is take from my experiences and learn from them. Bravery, kindness, and failure go hand in hand when learning how to grow as a person. The steps to move forward now are simply to accept what I learned from my trials and to apply what I’ve learned to my life now.