Ok, so I have accidentally been a little bit slower than I intended in starting my blog. Sometimes life just decides you are just going to be really, frantically busy for a while. So let's rewind...
One month ago today I completed my final voluntary project in Bali, Indonesia. I spent a month working abroad where I helped with mental health, special needs and English teaching. The experience was absolutely incredible and saying that it ended a month ago seems surreal. However, even though the trip experience may have ended, I have memories to last me a life time, and that's what I want to discuss today. So, out in the beautiful island of Bali, with people I had never met prior to my trip, approximately 7,800 miles from home and out of my comfort zone, here are some of the thing that I learned.
1) Do things that give you life long memories! All the hard-work, the graft and the occasional bad stuff, that may not be a nice feeling right now but that's temporary and feelings cannot last forever. Memories, however, can. So go and completely immerse yourself. Somewhere, anywhere, or into something, anything.For me, all the hard-work that had gone into being able to volunteer abroad was more than justified when I watched the smiles of the local children I played games with in the street or as I looked up to the trees of the jungle from my water raft. There are some moments your life that are truly special and surreal - but to acquire them you need to put yourself out there!
2) One person CAN make a difference. What does it matter if it is on a small scale or a large scale? Happiness is completing a project and seeing a child smile, or press your hand to their forehead as a sign of respect. I don't think I have ever felt a greater sense of purpose in my life, so far, as when I completed a project out there and felt I had made an impact on someone's life, or even somebody's day. Even beyond this, I met some incredible people on my trip and we were their a long time together, all far from home. Friendships and bonds were as inevitable as the hard times that was occasionally experiences. What makes a difference to these hard-times if the things one person does for another, or says to another. One person CAN makes a difference. They can positively impact upon another person, who in turn can make a difference to somebody else and suddenly you have this beautiful chain reaction.
3) Be flexible! Try something new! You might not love it, but at least you will have tried it. Trying something at least gives you an opinion on it, a new view. And experiences and like experiments, they come to be a source of knowledge to. Bali meant being flexible everyday. From my daily routine, to the things I tried to eat, to everything I did and saw. Adaptation is a powerful skill. P.S - things that are more flexible are less likely to break, they merely bend and bounce back instead.
4) BE YOURSELF! And be whatever version of yourself you feel like being that day, because we all have more than one version of ourselves, play more than one role. Life is too short to waste time trying to exhaust yourself by playing the role of someone you are not.
5) Give - but it's ok to take too. A very smart lady in Bali told me that "People call each other selfish like it's an insult, but it is not always selfish to put oneself first, it's good for you sometimes and healthy. We should not be afraid or insulted to be called selfish". She made a very good point. By no means do I think you should spend all 24 hours of the day thinking of yourself and only yourself, but it's ok to thing of yourself sometimes too. To put oneself's first and close others a very close second, because ultimate, you have to live for you. To give a little and to take a little is fair, it is balances, like scales... and good balance stops you from falling. So give, give, give. So out there and make a difference. But treat yourself too, allow yourself a little something back. Share and care but take, make and create!
6) Some people in life give and forgive, some people will get and forget. This is not unalike point 5. A lot has gone on in my person life the last 6 months and I think I have spent a lot of time upset with people who have let me down, especially the people I felt I had given so much to in the past. However, and as much as I loathe this expression, 'that's the way life is' sometimes. Some people just get and forget. But you should aspire to rise above this. Keep on giving and forgiving. It can be easy to get caught up and become resentful of other peoples wrong-doings. We all have 'what's the point' or 'who would do the same for me?' moments, but work past these. It's good to be an above average person! Keep on giving - be it your resources, knowledge or time. And forgive those who don't do the same, you never know what you might teach them along the way.
7) The world is a big and beautiful place, but you have to keep your eyes, your mind and your heart open to see it. The world IS an incredible place. The more channels you keep open, the more of it you can let it. See it with your eyes because it is beautiful. Open your mind because the world is full of differences and they are exciting and we can learn from them. Keep your heart open too - that's what helps intertwine the moments and memories with the feelings.
8) BE BRAVE! Sometimes we want to do things, and we don't for silly reasons. This speak true of the younger version of myself so, so much. As a young, shy girl in class I recall wanting to answer the question but being too afraid to put my hand up. sometimes we want to say something, and speak up, but the words just won't come. Or we want to do something but we fear the consequences. I think that sometimes we crave to be brave. It's as if we are standing on the edge of a cliff, wanting to jump and experience the free fall, but we are standing, waiting for someone to push us because we cannot quite take the leap of faith ourselves. Sometimes we have to just DO IT, be brave - or regret it all the way to be brave. Here's what I found - it gets easier each time too. The more times you step out of your comfort zone, the more it actually stops being 'out of' your comfort zone and starts becoming a commonplace. SO BE BRAVE!
9) The biggest journey you will ever have is your own life. Cliche, I know! It's all be said before, but it's true. But on all great journeys you make discoveries and the greatest discovery you will ever make is yourself! So enjoy your journey!
10) Always be open to friendship. I have decided that friendship is one of the most beautiful things that was are blessed to experience in our lifetimes. Some friendships may be lifelong, while other friendships may just contribute to lifelong memories. And both is fine because both enrich you in some way. I met a lot of incredible people in Bali and I feel so incredibly humbled and blessed to have had this opportunity. You should always be open to a new friendship, there's no such thing as too many. A month later I still talk to some of these amazing people everyday, while others I speak to on rare occasions - and this probably resounds for many people with their friends in their everyday life. Both is fine. Friends, when absent, stay in our thoughts, our memories and our hearts and they are a big, big part of both who we are and are experiences. So makes lots, have lots - because this means lots of experiences and lots of extra elements to ourselves. Friendship is partly such as incredible thing because of how it can both blossom and survive in any conditions!
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