THE MYTH ABOUT "FINDING YOURSELF" WHILE TRAVELING

Have you lost and "found" yourself while traveling? :)

When I first started traveling solo, I was just like the hundreds of wide-eyed explorers out there hoping for that eureka moment, that sign from the universe, that one big realization which will finally answer questions about myself, my purpose, and life in general.

It didn't happen. Sure, I came back with the whole "poorer in monetary wealth, but richer in world views" thing and I've had several personal and life-in-general realizations while on the road and I don't question the fact that travel can teach you several life lessons and that it's a great educational experience, but most of my major light bulb moments weren't even while traveling. A few of them were in the most unexpected places:

MINI-STOP. It's a convenience store just like a 7-11 that is ubiquitous in Manila when I was still working there. I was on my third year of working full time and buying my nth instant noodles for dinner that week because I couldn't afford anything else. I had spent my money on clothes, shoes, and more clothes the moment pay day hit my ATM. While lining up to pay, a wave of self-pity washed over me and I realized how poorly I was managing my finances and this was not the life I envisioned for myself, and certainly not the kind of life I would be proud telling my parents about after all their years of hard work to put me through an exclusive university we could barely afford. I don't have it all figured out yet, but that eureka moment was the first step. IN MY BED. I had just woken up from a particularly wild night of partying in Singapore during the time I ran with some local and expat "cool kids" and couldn't remember much from the night. It wasn't the first time that year that I had spent so much on drinking, clubbing, and then blacking out. They may make for funny stories but they're certainly not funny when you start to realize you're seriously going down the alcoholic rabbit hole! So I left the cool kids' group, moderated alcohol consumption, and saved the clubbing for those really rare occasions. I do admit that travel provided me with much-needed blinders to help refocus my time and efforts. AT MY WORK DESK. Took me a few advertising agencies to realize it's all the same shit, only with different people, that you should pick your battles, and that in the end, it's just work, not my be-all, end-all and that work definitely does not define me or my life (in as much as how travel does not define my entire being). IN A CLUB. To realize that you can find love in places that you once snobbishly thought was a just a haven for one-night stands and drunken flirtations was an eye-opener. AT HOME. It was when I first held my nephew, who was just a week-old that time, that I realized I am capable of unconditional love. :)

So there you have it. You don't necessarily have to climb Mt Everest to realize your strength, or stand in front of the Mona Lisa to find your artistic side, or travel to India to realize you want to be a yoga teacher, or wait for one nicely-wrapped sign from the universe for you to find yourself.

I certainly didn't find my artistic side after seeing the Mona Lisa. ;-)

Finding yourself is not a one-time thing - we are after all, a sum of all our experiences and realizations come in trickles throughout your life. And maybe that's why we think we don't have these eureka moments in our normal day to day, because trickles are barely discernible especially when surrounded by the sounds and flurry of activities of our daily lives vs. when we have the clarity to think when we "get away from it all."

I think all it takes is to catch your breath, pause, and truly listen.

HAPPY TRAVELS! x

#selfdiscovery