Gratitude
I am trying to live my life in a state of gratitude. Some days are easier than others. And sometimes, when I think about the past, I realize how truly grateful I am.
No traveler lives completely in a vacuum when traveling. I suppose it’s possible to travel somewhere and follow a schedule so strictly that it is nearly impossible to need help, but that’s never happened to me. I have had to ask for directions at minimum on every single trip I have ever taken. Sometimes it has been much more involved than simple directions.
We hear all the time that the world is a dangerous, scary place. In fact, the most common question people ask is “Won’t you be scared/Weren’t you scared?”
No, I am not, and No, I wasn’t.
Sure, at times, I was nervous. But I wasn’t scared. Not really. Okay, maybe I a little when I was kidnapped by two guys between the Peru/Ecuador border. Maybe I was scared when I was caught by rouge waves that held me under water when I was learning to surf. But that could have happened anywhere.
But people didn’t scare me. Even amongst strangers, I [almost] never felt like I was in danger.
In the beginning, I kept my guard up. I realized that I needed to trust the people I met along the way. I am used to being alone [only child and all] so I don’t always think about needing to rely on others. Time and time again, I needed to rely on the kindness of strangers to get me through.
So this Thanksgiving, I want to thank all of those strangers who went above and beyond to help me. Some people whose names I never knew to those who I am now happy to call my friends.
SO Thank You…
Thank you to Missa and Jamie who helped me celebrate my birthday in Rome. We celebrated with a bottle of Chianti, a plate of pasta, and a birthday cards and flowers from the market. It was so nice to not be alone on my birthday.
Thank you to the elderly lady on the train. I was on a train from Rome to Naples or at least I thought it was to Naples. Nope. It was headed to the other side of Italy. I would have figured it out eventually, but she saved me time and money. My Italian isn’t great. BUT I know Spanish and between my Spanish and her Italian, she pointed me in the right direction. I arrivied in Sorrento during daylight hours. Yay!
Thank you to the women in at the Ecuadorian border. After being kidnapped and missing my bus, two women in their 40’s asked me if I needed a ride somewhere. They offered to take me anywhere along the route to Guayaquil. I had a great time, met some amazing women, had lunch, and relaxed for the first time that day. After seeing the ugly side of human nature, it was a blessing to see the good.
Thank you to Javier… the teenager who came and picked me up on his moped after I couldn’t get the bus driver to stop. I ended up about 2 km past my intended destination. Carrying the 65L backpack plus my tools for jungle-work would have made a sucky end to a very long day.
Thank you to Massimo…who taught me to cook on a gas stove. I have always either cooked on an electric range or a grill and gas tended to scare me a bit. Thanks to Massimo, I didn’t starve during my weeks alone in the jungle lodge.
Thank you to the lady in Trujillo who made sure the taxi driver didn’t cheat me.
Thank you to all the people who have hosted me during my travels. By not spending a ton of money for accommodations, I have gotten to visit so many more places. I’ve seen how people live–not just as a tourist, and spent time in places I would have never dreamed about.
Lynnley in Charleston, Corinna in San Francisco, Cameron in Seattle. Emily in Vermont, Jeanette in Florida, Angie in Chicago. Emilie in Chamonix, France, Marta in Bratislava, Slovakia, Tomas in Wroclaw, Poland. Alex in Mendoza, Argentina, Steve in Stafford, England, and Sophie in Kokkola, Finland. All strangers at one point; all friends at another.
Shout out to Alainis Morissette and Thank U for inspiration for this post.
This is a lovely tribute to all the kind people who have helped you during your travels 🙂 We have had so many like this on our journeys as well. I always believe in the goodness of people, and so far, haven’t been shown otherwise during our travels!
samiya selim recently posted…Top Reasons to travel New Zealand by Campervan
Wow! This is a nice blog post. Sometimes, we tend to overlook those people that help us in our travels. Despite what’s happening in the world, it’s good to know that kind people still exists! 🙂
I like to think of it as good karma. I always try to help people who are traveling near me; I’m glad there are others who do the same.
what a lovely post! With such horrible things currently going on in the world it is nice to be reminded of the kindness of strangers
I was raised to be wary of strangers, to be self-sufficient, but once you get out of your little bubble, you realise how much you have to rely on people whenever you travel whether it’s for something simple like asking for directions in a city or something a bit more complicated like someone opening up their house to you.