May 6, 2017
I didn’t have a set idea of what all I would accomplish while studying abroad. I barely had an idea of the places I wanted to go or the type of people I might meet. All I had was admission to a journalism program in some city I had never heard of, a place to live, a plane ticket to get me there, and an open mind. With a few simple guidelines to help me get by…
One. Above all else I knew I wanted to/would have to get more comfortable with being alone. All of my closest friends would be a phone call away but I would have no one to recall old memories with or follow routine with here. I’d be starting over and this called for becoming more comfortable with depending on myself for opening up to new people and being okay with being entirely alone sometimes (which is a big challenge for someone who talks every second they are awake (me)).
Two. Just go. Whenever given a chance to travel, I promised myself I’d just go. Whether it was somewhere I was interested in or a place I had not really heard of, I wanted to go and see any and everything. I wanted to live by remembe
ring that, “The only things you regret are the things you didn’t do.”
Three. Enjoy the now. So often I get caught up in thinking about the future. I worry about if I will ever really make it in the world of journalism. I worry whether or not I will ever move to a city I am absolutely in love with. I worry I’ll miss chances I should have taken. I worry that I won’t become who I have the potential to grow into. When I left home I told myself to leave all of these stressful unknowns out of mind because I won’t get all of those answers overnight. Living day to day experiencing new things and learning will bring me closer to an answer than sitting around will.
Four. Be more accepting. Be more accepting of others and learn from how the people surrounding me see things. Be more accepting of circumstances I cannot change, if I dwell on what I cannot do much about I will only end up with a raging headache and a more down spirit. Be more accepting of being a few minutes late to something, it wont be the end of the world. No matter what, I needed to be more accepting.
Surely I had countless simple goals I wanted to achieve too, but I have been using these four guidelines as mantras of sorts.
I thought I would keep my blog running smoothly. I had this idea that I would post about every trip I’ve been on. In the past month, however, I had three whole weeks off of school. In that time my mom and Oman visited me.
We went to Giethoorn, a village in the Netherlands known for the little to no use of roads and abundant use of canals to get around..
and to Keukenhof. The famous tulip fields in the Netherlands that is one of the largest and most colorful gardens in the world. (Also known as The Garden of Europe)
I went to Dublin with my three main traveling partners (Laura, Judith and Sam), the four lads from England that we met in Budapest (Matt, Greg, Andy and Matthew) and met their spunky friend from growing up (Benedict).
After Dublin I spent one day in my dorm before setting off to Greece for five days with my dear friend Millie.
The day after I returned from the sunny beaches of the Santorini islands I was back in the Netherlands just in time for one of the biggest annual celebrations here, King’s Day.
To say the least, I had enough time and energy to blog about none of the previously mentioned adventures.
I thought, “If I can’t keep up with a travel blog, I sure as heck won’t be able to meet any deadlines as a paid journalist..” Then I remembered my mantra of enjoying the now.
No beating myself up over some blog post I didn’t get around to. No forcing myself to catch up and write four to five separate posts about said trips. I am finally doing it. Living in the now. Enjoying all the experiences I have been blessed with since coming here. Going anywhere and everywhere I can. There will always be time for telling stories and recapping trips but there won’t ever be a second chance to live out each day I have been given thus far.
While being here hasn’t been anything like I imagined it would be, it’s been irreplaceable. I have roughly two months left in the Netherlands and while I don’t know what those two months will fully look like, I will continue to remind myself of my four guidelines:
Be more comfortable with myself. Enjoy the now. Be more accepting and just go.
