This quote swirls inspiration in me. I look at it, reflect on it, and cannot help but agree with it. The “Explore. Dream. Discover” bit especially makes me feel like I want to leave everything behind and put my passport in my backpack and just take off – anywhere, everywhere.[break]
And I’m almost ready to do it and then I come up with only so many excuses as to why I shouldn’t. Just as I’m about to decide to book my tickets, it hits me – presentations, projects, proposals, papers.
So I talk myself out of venturing to unknown lands and promise myself to accommodate the plans either on some weekend or in summer breaks.
My travel plans, for the most part, always take a backseat when I have other obligations. This is something I try and weigh and consider if actually I should be overlooking the wonders and values of traveling. Surely, being able to discover a new place, a new lifestyle, and new understanding will help add much perspectives to life. But then what about studies, work, other such constraints?
And besides, it’s not even like I have the liberty to come and go to any part of the world as I please without draining a hole in my wallet. So without enough money and without enough time, how can I make plans to just hit the roads? This question genuinely bugs me.
Enter foreign exchange students. Like most universities, our university also encourages foreign exchanges and draws in a unique mix of nationalities each semester.
This semester too we had the average “I want to see Asia!” sort of Western exchanges and the rate at which they travel is worth marveling at; within weeks of arrival in Thailand, they unleash the travel bugs inside of them and brave foreign lands blending (or at least trying to blend) into all sorts of local customs and coming back with great stories and memories to share.
These people circle Asia like they are about to write a book on every nook and corner of it and it might even be possible that some of them have traveled Asia to a degree much greater than you average Asian. But what gets me is the money and the time –where do they get the money and the time?
As it turned out, I had been spending much of my time attempting to look for a complex answer to an obvious question. The answer to ‘the money’ was work and to ‘time,’ it was flexibility. I think I owe it to them for making me realize what was so obvious.
But I don’t blame myself for being so naïve, either. After all, cultural background has been a strong force in shaping our mindsets.
Where it might be normal and expected for most Westerners to work for what they want, most of us Easterners rely heavily on our parents’ love for any form of support. Of course, to every norm there are exceptions, however.
So while my foreign-exchange buddies were stumbling upon adventures in Vietnam, beholding the picturesque Laos, and navigating through incredible India, I was either doing my presentations, or projects, or proposals, or papers.
One day, when one of the foreign exchange friends of mine had had enough of hearing my quandary over how I’ve always wanted to travel but have never found the time nor the resources, asked me, “When will you see the world then?” Later, of course.
“So when is this later? When you get a job and yet again have all the presentations, projects, proposals, papers to give to your boss?”
I understand her frustration with my improbable probabilities for I have been telling her since her first day as an exchange of my wishes to travel far and wide.
Today, six months later, she has indeed explored, dreamt and discovered this region while it seems that all I have done is dreamt and fallen fast asleep.
Ayushma Basnyat is a student of Political Science at Thammasat University who enjoys exploring life and all that it has to offer.
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