Wanderlust

When you start a trip with apprehensions and hesitations, and when it turns out to be just the opposite, then it was worth it. Is it not?

Something like that happened to me. Office announced a trip to Bintan, Indonesia. Too many issues pulling me down, at office and personal, I was in a bad / guilty mood to go out on a trip. I disregarded that nagging voice inside me and said ‘Yes’. Of course the nagging stayed on – it continued to remind me of the various reasons why I shouldn't be going. But there I was standing at the boarding pass counter, albeit wondering whether that was the right thing to do!

It is not easy, packing your bags, leaving the comfort of one’s own home and leaving to a country you have never been before with people you don’t know too well. But such trips do something to you which you find out only after it is over. The freedom you get is unbelievable – no one knows you, you don’t have a reputation to keep – these give a sense of confidence and bring out the child in you. I now firmly believe reputation etc. is unimportant. What you are inside is your reputation!

Anyway, good things don’t last forever. Sitting in a 4X4 cubicle and staring at the computer is reality for now. All the “paused” issues come up and you have to face them. You can’t escape.

What the trip did to me, however, is to give me renewed energy to face problems. Some things that I learnt:

• People behave with you the way you behave with them
• Focus is needed for anything that you do
• Regardless of whether you are tall or short, fat or thin, black or white, young or old, you look beautiful when you smile with happiness.
• Photos distract you from enjoying
• But, photos are important because you forget sooner than you think
• Genuine appreciation of people is a sure fire way of forging relationships
• Singing is healing
• Health is wealth
• Family is a treasure that you own, focus on family should be the highest thing on your list

Here’s to bringing out the wanderlust in me!