Travelling is weird.
I mean, to be fair, it's any number of things. Exciting, eye opening, amazing, changing, dangerous, even boring at times... but of all the things that it is, weird is definitely the word that sticks out at me right now.
It may be that my 14 months out of anything remotely close to an educational institution has significantly decreased my vocabulary, (and also my ability to spell... and do basic maths... anyway irrelevant) but I think I'm sticking to it.
Right now I am sitting in the Suvarnabhumi Aiport in Bangkok, Thailand, waiting. Waiting to take my final flight... the last one of the eight that have transported me all around the globe. It feels so strange. So strange to think I have been travelling for 9 months. Dragging my bag around, finding places to sleep, eating without ever entering a kitchen, waiting in airports, bus ports, train stations, malls, street corners, concrete steps... you can probably name anything and I will have waited on, near, within sight of or for it. So much has happened in this time, 6 months, a full 3 seasons of camp as well as the other 3 months of backpacking. Camp itself was so long, so full... so many good times were had, so many lessons taught, so many experiences unlike anything I had ever done before. Friendships unlike any other, built on such different but such solid foundations. The whole thing was quite inexplicable, the experience is really one that has to be experienced to be fully appreciated.
And then once camp was over, I packed up my stuff and roamed far and wide, trundling the globe on the aimless but no less dedicated search that is backpacking. And I thought camp was full of unmatchable experiences. Turns out I had my fair share of eye-opening experiences that gave me a full new set of ways of looking at everything, the world, it's people, myself.
It feels weird to say that things will never be the same again, that I will never be the same again. The connotations are too negative, which is far far from what I mean when I say it. Change is useful, needed and in my case, refreshing. I feel like I can see everything through eyes no longer blinkered by the limits of what I knew before. I still have so much more to learn, but it's like I didn't even know what I did and didn't know before, but now I've been given a sort of clarity.
All this sort of rambling isn't really achieving what I intended... as my trip is literally hours away from ending, it almost feels like it never happened. But I know the things I've learnt will stick with me, even if it feels like I imagined the whole things. I know no one will be bothering to read this as I will be home so soon... but if any one of the incredible people I met while I was away reads this, thank you! Thank you for helping give me the best times of my life, I can't wait to see you again.
I hope anyone who has ever read or ever does read this gets a chance to experience the truly liberating feeling that is swinging your bag onto your back, pocketing your passport and heading out the door and into the big wide world. It's most definitely one of the best things you'll ever do.
