Holy guacamole you guys. What an eventful day and a half it has been! I honestly don’t even know where to begin. I have been sitting and staring at my laptop screen for the past half hour trying to figure out a way to write my first blog post and nothing has been sounding right. So instead of laying it out in an easy to read format, I’m going to ramble because I’m really really good at rambling.
I am not a patient person. I don’t know what waiting is because I pretty much avoid anything that involves waiting or if I can’t avoid it, I complain about it the whole time. I don’t do well when things don’t go as planned. It makes my life difficult to plan things differently. I have been traveling for over a day just to get to my destination in Portugal. During this time, I was almost kicked off of my first flight because it was overbooked, I waited in passport control for two whole hours during which time I missed my bus to my final destination, and I ended up going to the bus/train station and not being able to buy a bus ticket. I also couldn’t get a hold of my hostel for the first few hours to let them know the change of plans. Bonus, I fell while walking up the stairs (yes up) and really hurt my knee badly. Looking at all these things, I know at some point in the day I should have freaked out. I should have had a nice cry session. I should have yelled at someone or complained at some point. But I didn’t do any of those things and I’m so proud of myself.
I have been reading a book about mindfulness. Mindfulness is essentially enjoying your life in the present and appreciating the little things that most people don’t appreciate or notice in their day to day life. So this first day of traveling was an experiment. I decided to change the way I reacted to situations to see if my mood or overall experience would be altered.
As I sit here on a train somewhere in Portugal, I am overcome by a sense of serenity and calmness. I realize that this whole first leg of my trip was beautifully chaotic. It went every way but the way I planned it, and I am okay with that. I met a wonderful Portuguese girl named Marisa who helped me with the train system, raved about Guarda, and even added me on Facebook. We chatted and giggled about the silliest things. We talked about life and her motto, “work hard, play hard” and she even was even kind enough to wake me up when we passed by some amazing towns on the train ride. I learned that she was supposed to be on the same bus that I missed this morning.
You see, I never really believed people when they said that it’s the journey not the destination, but they were so right. We are all in such a hurry to get to the next place that we forget that we are the difference that we are looking for. I am sleep deprived, smelly, and hungry, but I am happy. I have fallen in love with Portugal in the first day and craved the company of people I have only talked to for mere minutes. Life will never go as planned. There will be ups and downs and twists and curves. Our reactions to the rollercoaster that we call life, will make all the difference. I encourage everyone to be more mindful of their lives. Open up your eyes a bit. You’d be amazed at what you miss out out on when trying to get through life.
From somewhere,
Lane