Before I came to Cape Town, I knew that I wanted travel to
be a part of my future career. I have always had this idea in my head, this
beautiful picture of myself stepping off planes all over the world and seeing
unique-looking animals, and beautifully historic buildings, and speaking with
people who have only things to say that I have never heard before. I even knew
that I wanted to learn several languages, and be able to speak them fluently; I
think being able to communicate in more than one way is one of the most
interesting skills a person can have. But now that I’ve actually been here for
a few months, and now that I have somewhat of an understanding of what it means
to live in a foreign place without the comforts of home, I think I’ve gotten a
bit of a better grasp of what goals I have for my life in the future.
The biggest difference between what
I thought before and what I know now is that no sort of traveling lifestyle is
going to happen to me by chance. Living successfully in this city, an in any
city as a matter of fact, takes a lot of work, communication, the desire to
learn, and a good spirit of adventure. If I really do want to live a lifestyle
that leaves me constantly on the verge of something new, I have to start
meeting new people now, I have to start living that type of lifestyle while I’m
here. I don’t necessarily mean that I have to network every second and that
there is no time to lay back and enjoying the flowers while I’m here in Cape
Town. I just mean that everything about this opportunity, for me, can be used
as a window to my future. I’ve been willing to push myself into uncomfortable
situations because I know that living a life of travel means being
uncomfortable sometimes. And I’ve been trying to learn as much as I possibly
can about this city because I know that my life of travel doesn’t start
somewhere in the murky future, but that it actually starts now. The beautiful
picture of me stepping off of a plane and into a totally foreign place? Well, I
think it’s safe to say that I’ve already seen that picture happen in real life,
when I stepped off the plane in Cape Town for the first time.
I still don’t have definable goals for
the short answer to the question of what I want to do with my life. I just know
that I want to travel, and that there are opportunities for that, and that I
need to begin grasping at those opportunities now. I’m already in the midst of
one of those opportunities now, and what better way to live a life of travel
than to begin it this way?
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