Words From South Africa
These words and this photo were hanging on the wall in the room I stayed in on my very first solo trip.
I arrived in South Africa where I’d be spending 4 weeks playing in the ocean. It was my first time out of the country and it was my first time traveling solo. It was also a trip that came about out of a bit of a rash decision, the kind you make when you just want to have an answer for the constant question, "What are you doing now that you aren't going back to school?" Probably the best rash decision I’ve ever made.
I saw this hanging on the wall and instantly fell in love with it. I didn’t know why, but I felt drawn to it and it made my heart happy.
Fast forward to the present and it’s funny how much these words feel so fitting to me, how much it feels like they could be words straight from one of my own journals.
While not every trip is just me and a backpack, I sure enjoy the ones that are. The simplicity of it is refreshing. Running off with only what you can carry on your back is a beautiful little reminder of how little we actually need to be happy. How the material things matter so very little. What matters is the people you are with or the ones you meet, the environments you are in and the way that simultaneously you are impacting where you are while it impacts you.
It's been just over 4 years since I snapped the picture of these words and they still ring in my head quite regularly. That's the power of good words i guess- even the simplest of them can hold so much meaning. Even the simplest words can dig into your heart and make you think- wow, I’m not alone. There are people who feel things the way that I do. There are people who desire what I desire. There are people who struggle like I struggle.
19 year old Mads had no idea how much her 4 weeks in South Africa would change her. South Africa was the place that opened my eyes not only to the abundance of opportunities there were out in our world, but it was the place that comforted me and made me realize that there were so many people who were doing what I was doing, figuring out life one step at a time.
These things that the words from the wall of the volunteer house represent to me are also what I love so much about travel. It’s why I keep finding myself being pulled to see somewhere new, to put myself out there, to feel uncomfortable. I find it so incredibly special that these words were my intro to South Africa because South Africa in so many ways was my intro to the world.
A little more love to South Africa, here!