The trip in the North West left a deep scar on me. It wasn't the same feeling, that nostalgia for vacations you always have throughout the year, when you're at work. That scar had me thinking at a whole new level. After the inspiring people I had met, after hearing their stories and learning from them, after seeing lots of new, terrific places, I came home with questions. The scar was just enlarging, getting bigger with every passing day through the hot and humid Italian summer. I was going to work with my mind full of questions, and it showed. My productivity was plummeting as I was just showing people photos from my last trip and planning new adventures. Or, THE ADVENTURE.
June and July passed by fairly smoothly.
When me and a buddy of mine left for a short, 5-days trip in Eastern Europe, it didn't change a whole lot. We just enjoyed the time we spent around. I personally liked visiting Vien, or the little but charming Bratislava, or the quite awesome city of Budapest. I remember thinking briefly "I should get a job here!". You know, being single and without any interest in staying home, with all those nice-looking girls around looked like a perfect place for me, after all.
The place we had more fun than any other one though was Belgrade. I was returning for the third time, the first without a love-affair in progress. We were staying in a floating hostel (a great idea: small houses turned into hostels, developed on 2 or 3 stories, anchored to land but floating on the river) just about 50 yards across the city's Beer Festival. We probably wouldn't have chosen that particular location for 2 straight nights if we would have been aware that music would have been playing loud until cut-off time at 3 in the morning, but heck.. was a cool experience in itself!
We survived a "welcome!" shot of a local grappa that almost left us grasping for air, and for the next couple days we hung around with friends of mine - Dunja, Tamara and Dijiana - that made our stay nice and cool! It further strengthened my idea that sometimes, even though we have a preconception of a certain place, or country, we might prove ourselves wrong about it. I thought certain things about Serbia, for instance, and some of them surely remained that way. The thing I'd have never suspected though was its people, that could open so much and be so friendly and interesting. I also liked the city of Belgrade itself a lot - whereas other people still think it's a cluster of war ruins. Well, you know, you gotta try before you really know.
August, with people all leaving towards the crowded beaches or the mountain villages, was a reflective month. I started to imagine myself cruising the world, going to places I barely knew existed, doing things I heard of just on TV. I started to grab plain paper sheets and write down countries I'd have liked to visit, activities I'd have loved to try.
Every time though, I ended up dismissing everything as "a dream". My approach was still soft, realistic, and what was the actual goal looked more like a dream than anything else. Something cool to spend a few minutes daydreaming about. The funny thing was that over the weeks I accumulated tons of paper on my desk: calculations, facts, plans. At least my desk looked busy and professional.
One certain day though, I came back home from work. It had been a tedious day, and the routine was already killing me. I was sick of hearing the same stories every day, from the farmer complaining that the government was stealing his savings to the enterpreneur lamenting that debtors weren't paying. I couldn't care less. It was like I was living in my own sphere, lifted in the sky, among the clouds, thinking about great plains, endless oceans, high mountains. I turned my head around and focused my attention only when I heard words as "United States" or "travel". I was amorphus, carrying on through my days just because of the scarcity of better, more satisfying alternatives.
That day though, that feeling of sickness brought me once again to my desk. With more determination.
I sat down, glanced at my paper stack, shook my head and grabbed one last empty paper sheet.
I grabbed a pen and started to ask myself questions.
"Am I happy?", was the first one. The answer quickly came to my mind. "NO".
There had to be something positive though in my existence.
"What are the valuable things you have, or the ones that could make you happy?" So I started to write down... "My family and friends, and their company.. the thing I have a well paid job.. and that I can afford my nice car, and a bunch of fancy clothes.." .. and nothing more.
The question that sprung naturall afterwards was "Are these things making you happy now?" and of course, another NO came up.
I knew there had to be something out there capable of putting a smile on my face for more than an hour. Maybe for a whole week or month.. or year. "What do you think can make you happy?" asked myself.
The answer was clear. I started to write down things like travelling, hiking, watching wildlife, meeting foreigners, trying something exciting, facing new cultures. It looked like I really needed to go travel, basically.
To do that though, wasn't the easy choice. I'd have had to renounce commodities and a laid-back life for the uncertainty and tight circumstances I could have faced.
So I asked, "Would you be ready to sacrifice the aforementiond things you have and face uncertainty, restraint and possibly some kind of danger?"
I went on analyzing all the things I listed as important. My family, yes, it was, but you have to separate from it at a certain point. Not forever, but you can't be seeing your parents every day for your whole life! My friends.. well, it would have been hard. Still, I wasn't having the best time of my life with them. I already felt like I was talking another language, caring about different things, living another way. The times when we were all a bunch of young rascals playing outside from 3 to dinner time was well over, and it seemed obvious that we were starting to take different paths in our lives. It was the right time for my move.
Finally, all the goods, from a fancy car to nice clothes.. that's not happiness. There's people out there spending whole days shopping for clothes. Although it might make you feel alright, it's an ephemeral feeling. Doesn't last for a lifetime. You'll need a new pair of jeans each week, to show your friends, to sport proudly on the streets. Does that lead to happiness? In which way, might I ask?
No, that wasn't all. That was something I could have easily let go.
If I had nothing to make me happy while travelling did, and I was ready to sacrifice those things I cared about, where was the problem?!
Truth is, there was no problem, at all.
To the question of whether or not I shall have left, the asnwer came out swift. It was a "YES".
June and July passed by fairly smoothly.
When me and a buddy of mine left for a short, 5-days trip in Eastern Europe, it didn't change a whole lot. We just enjoyed the time we spent around. I personally liked visiting Vien, or the little but charming Bratislava, or the quite awesome city of Budapest. I remember thinking briefly "I should get a job here!". You know, being single and without any interest in staying home, with all those nice-looking girls around looked like a perfect place for me, after all.
The place we had more fun than any other one though was Belgrade. I was returning for the third time, the first without a love-affair in progress. We were staying in a floating hostel (a great idea: small houses turned into hostels, developed on 2 or 3 stories, anchored to land but floating on the river) just about 50 yards across the city's Beer Festival. We probably wouldn't have chosen that particular location for 2 straight nights if we would have been aware that music would have been playing loud until cut-off time at 3 in the morning, but heck.. was a cool experience in itself!
We survived a "welcome!" shot of a local grappa that almost left us grasping for air, and for the next couple days we hung around with friends of mine - Dunja, Tamara and Dijiana - that made our stay nice and cool! It further strengthened my idea that sometimes, even though we have a preconception of a certain place, or country, we might prove ourselves wrong about it. I thought certain things about Serbia, for instance, and some of them surely remained that way. The thing I'd have never suspected though was its people, that could open so much and be so friendly and interesting. I also liked the city of Belgrade itself a lot - whereas other people still think it's a cluster of war ruins. Well, you know, you gotta try before you really know.
August, with people all leaving towards the crowded beaches or the mountain villages, was a reflective month. I started to imagine myself cruising the world, going to places I barely knew existed, doing things I heard of just on TV. I started to grab plain paper sheets and write down countries I'd have liked to visit, activities I'd have loved to try.
Every time though, I ended up dismissing everything as "a dream". My approach was still soft, realistic, and what was the actual goal looked more like a dream than anything else. Something cool to spend a few minutes daydreaming about. The funny thing was that over the weeks I accumulated tons of paper on my desk: calculations, facts, plans. At least my desk looked busy and professional.
One certain day though, I came back home from work. It had been a tedious day, and the routine was already killing me. I was sick of hearing the same stories every day, from the farmer complaining that the government was stealing his savings to the enterpreneur lamenting that debtors weren't paying. I couldn't care less. It was like I was living in my own sphere, lifted in the sky, among the clouds, thinking about great plains, endless oceans, high mountains. I turned my head around and focused my attention only when I heard words as "United States" or "travel". I was amorphus, carrying on through my days just because of the scarcity of better, more satisfying alternatives.
That day though, that feeling of sickness brought me once again to my desk. With more determination.
I sat down, glanced at my paper stack, shook my head and grabbed one last empty paper sheet.
I grabbed a pen and started to ask myself questions.
"Am I happy?", was the first one. The answer quickly came to my mind. "NO".
There had to be something positive though in my existence.
"What are the valuable things you have, or the ones that could make you happy?" So I started to write down... "My family and friends, and their company.. the thing I have a well paid job.. and that I can afford my nice car, and a bunch of fancy clothes.." .. and nothing more.
The question that sprung naturall afterwards was "Are these things making you happy now?" and of course, another NO came up.
I knew there had to be something out there capable of putting a smile on my face for more than an hour. Maybe for a whole week or month.. or year. "What do you think can make you happy?" asked myself.
The answer was clear. I started to write down things like travelling, hiking, watching wildlife, meeting foreigners, trying something exciting, facing new cultures. It looked like I really needed to go travel, basically.
To do that though, wasn't the easy choice. I'd have had to renounce commodities and a laid-back life for the uncertainty and tight circumstances I could have faced.
So I asked, "Would you be ready to sacrifice the aforementiond things you have and face uncertainty, restraint and possibly some kind of danger?"
I went on analyzing all the things I listed as important. My family, yes, it was, but you have to separate from it at a certain point. Not forever, but you can't be seeing your parents every day for your whole life! My friends.. well, it would have been hard. Still, I wasn't having the best time of my life with them. I already felt like I was talking another language, caring about different things, living another way. The times when we were all a bunch of young rascals playing outside from 3 to dinner time was well over, and it seemed obvious that we were starting to take different paths in our lives. It was the right time for my move.
Finally, all the goods, from a fancy car to nice clothes.. that's not happiness. There's people out there spending whole days shopping for clothes. Although it might make you feel alright, it's an ephemeral feeling. Doesn't last for a lifetime. You'll need a new pair of jeans each week, to show your friends, to sport proudly on the streets. Does that lead to happiness? In which way, might I ask?
No, that wasn't all. That was something I could have easily let go.
If I had nothing to make me happy while travelling did, and I was ready to sacrifice those things I cared about, where was the problem?!
Truth is, there was no problem, at all.
To the question of whether or not I shall have left, the asnwer came out swift. It was a "YES".
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