'Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You're off to Great Places!
You're off and away!
You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know
And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go.'...
Dr. Seuss
When I was was younger I would spend hours upon hours day dreaming about the adventures I would have when I grew up.
I wanted to walk a different life to those around me. I didn't want to stay in my small village like everybody else would. I didn't want to get married and have babies for fear of being tied down to a mundane life. After school I moved to London and did a degree in Development studies which was essentially world studies.
Which by the way leads to no job at all...
I didn't know what I wanted to be but I knew I wanted to travel and maybe take pictures while I did it.
I wanted to take the road less travelled...
I did that for a while in a relatively small way and it's a great life to lead. I travelled across America in an old hippy bus eating a vegetarian diet and bathing in rivers. I went to Australia and slept in a tent on the beach. I backpacked all around Europe. Going up mountains (small ones), sleeping on buses and trains, eating delicious and different food, hiking long trails, looking at the stars by a campfire while drinking a beer. There is something to be said for the travelling life and I miss it often. You feel alive everyday. You meet all kinds of people with the same adventurous outlook as you and for a short time they seem like soul mates. You feel like you are onto something real and special that the rest of the world, too busy with mindless jobs, is missing out on.
Although not having lived in the rest of the world yet I didn't really know what I was talking about.
It wasn't until a Taxi driver in Egypt held a screw driver to my throat while he took my friends money that I began to suspect that maybe I wasn't cut out for such an existence. It shook me up and deep down I knew that life style wasn't who I really was. Instead it was the way I thought I ought to be. I felt like a fraud because as much fun as I had, I always really really liked coming home.
And look at me now, married with children living in a small village not much bigger than the one I grew up in.
Did I sell out on my dreams?
I don't know, maybe...
and maybe I don't mind...
Or maybe my dreams have changed. Lately I feel like I'm finally leaning in to the real me. Rather than running away from it as fast as my legs could carry me.
And so now my adventures just look a little different...
Made up of smaller seemly ordinary things...
But we know better...
We see what others miss...
And being followed home by a small black cat seems like a very great adventure indeed...
Maybe I am not exactly on the road less travelled these days...
And that's okay...
Maybe I'm just on MY own road to be travelled
and it has different adventures perfect for me...
'Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So...get on your way'
Dr. Seuss
