Having now been travelling home for the past 27 hours (!) I’ve
had a lot of time to reflect about what I’ve experienced and achieved over the
last five months. One word springs to mind: LUCKY! I feel so lucky to have been
able to make such an important and life changing trip. I feel lucky to have
such supportive family and friends and such an understanding employer. I feel
lucky that I am at a point in my life where I have the freedom and finances to
make the time to do this trip. And I feel lucky to have been raised to have a
‘can do’ attitude that’s allowed me to face up to many fears and to overcome
them in the past five months. Thank you to everyone who pushed me to do this –
it was the best decision I’ve ever made (with your help!)!
I feel like I have had the time to reconnect with myself and
my values. “I’m too busy” is a horrible excuse that gets used all too often in
Western society (and is only sometimes the case!). It’s down to priorities,
what you see as being more important at that point in time, so it’s been nice to have
the luxury of playing around with my priorities to find the best fit with my
values and beliefs. I am so much happier now – I feel great and I believe that
I have changed for the better. I feel like me again!
So far I’ve figured out the following:
- I have done some charity fundraising over the past couple of years (Kilimanjaro, Nepal, Great North Run) but raising money isn’t enough. I need to reconnect with the things that are important to me and actively try to make a difference (as I have tried to do over the past five months). I used to voluntarily visit an elderly lady once a week when I lived in York. She really benefited from this (it helped her speech after a stroke and gave her company) and I enjoyed hearing her stories (even if I did hear the same stories each time!). I contacted Age UK when I moved to London but then the old “I don’t have time” excuse crept in and stopped me from volunteering. Thinking back, I am cross at myself for this so this needs to change. I will look for meaningful volunteer projects once I am settled in my new job.
- I have loved working with the children in India and Vietnam. I have always known that I will raise children at some point in my life but it has become even more apparent to me that there are so many needy children in a world that is already over-populated. Maybe adoption/ fostering is a route I need to go down in the future.
- I have re-discovered my love of animals. I have re-learned the joy that animals bring through the unconditional love that they give (I say unconditional but they certainly seem to love you more when milk/ food is on the cards!). “I’m never at home” was always my excuse for not getting a pet but I don’t have that excuse in my new job! We’ll see!
- Linked to this, I have become a vegetarian. Having sat next to (and listened to) a live chicken in a box on a 4 hour bus ride in Belize and seen how the cows and rabbits were treated at the boarding house in India (I hasten to add that they are not mistreated but they are certainly not happy!) I feel satisfied with my decision.
- For some reason, my physical and mental health were not always near the top of my priority list before I went away. I spent my life feeling stressed and tired, I didn’t make as much time for the gym as I should and I didn’t always eat the healthiest food if I ran out of time to cook (there’s that old excuse again!). In India Molly taught me some basic yoga and I have found that this is very important to my health. I had previously tried yoga and found that my mind was too busy with other things. I now feel clear enough to feel the benefits, both physically and mentally, and I will look to continue this in the future along with attending the gym more routinely and making time to cook healthy and well balanced food.
- Having practiced water conservation both in Belize and India I see how I should better police this when I am at home. I am good at not leaving the tap running etc when I brush my teeth, however, I need to reduce the length and frequency of my showers!
- At home I am terrible at plugging in electrical appliances and leaving them on to charge for a lot longer than necessary (my phone stays charging overnight most of the time!). Having survived power cuts galore in India I need to make sure that I don’t abuse the amount of power available to me in the Western world.
- In the past five months I have found a side of me that is very resourceful. I have survived without most of the comforts of home and, more than that, I have enjoyed it. I hope that this stays with me and I don’t fall back into bad habits fueled by Western living. I am, however, looking forward to washing my clothes in a washing machine!
- I need to make sure that I spend more time outside – I love being outside but I certainly don’t make enough of the nice days or the nature spots that are right outside my door (this may link in nicely with the pet idea a few points back!)!
Other personal development:
- I have learned the 50 states of USA (well, Molly and I had to pass the time on the long train journeys somehow!)
- Having spent 7 weeks in India finding ways to entertain the girls during their school holidays, I have a new found respect for my parents and grandparents! It’s not easy!
As I near the station at York, I want to say thank you to
everyone who has been following my blog over the past five months. I believe I
have got some of you into trouble for reading it at work – sorry about that!
Documenting my experiences, thoughts and feelings has been cathartic (in
India in particular) and allowed me to free a creative side for writing that has been
trapped for a long time. It’s felt as if you were all there with me a lot of
the time so I hope you have enjoyed the ride as much as I have!
I will sign off with one final thought. I have met so many
people on my travels who have said to me “I wish I could do what you’re doing”.
If volunteering/ travelling sounds like the kind of thing you’d like to do them
my advise to you is JUST DO IT, no matter how many reasons you can find
for not doing it! It’s been the best experience of my life and I hope that you
all get to experience something similar in the future – it’ll change your life,
I promise you that!
