A Penetrating Phrase

This time it wasn't a trip, but a very close person to me, let's call her Jane Doe, who decided to have a short travel to gather with her family.

Jane has always had a good life, thanks to the effort she has put into things with her husband, to maintain a united family through respect, ethics and fighting against conformism.

In Caracas - Venezuela, she found something that would change her way of looking at life totally, and I can say that the result is amazing, not only she has changed, but also her whole family, and little by little with example and perseverance in spite of the detractors, she achieves in helping more people find a new possibility in their lives. And, what is change, but another opportunity inside of us.

The fact that a person can see change as opportunity and another as a threat is personal and depends on the point of view, maturity and the consecuences that this change may bring to his/her life and envirnoment.

Nevertheless, returning to Jane. In her family gathering trip, she tried to express her new way of life, to her brothers, sisters and close family members, the benefits and virtues of change.

As it is well known about families or relationships between people, family or not, the first thing that happens is that you tell something, and the other person (as if it was a necessity) comments in a destructive way, for example: "That doesn't work, it's all fantasy", or "I know someone that does it better". I don't know if they do this because it makes them feel superior or they are trying to call our attention, of maybe because they are envious, but what may be the cause is not the reason of this post.

Between the destructive criticism, there was a very strong one that could kill anyone that has not enough mental discipline to resist it. This was: "The instrument that you gave me a year ago, which is supposed to make me rich, doesn't work and I am still poor".

Please, before you continue reading, take your time, and try to think of how would you feel if you, with the best intentions give thie instrument as a present to the other person so that he/she wears it as an amulet or adorn, and after a few months, they spit it in your face the way this person did.

Well, What happened? How did Jane Doe react to this devastating comment? Well, surprisingly with this penetrating phrase: "You have just made a great investment, built a house the way you like it, you have a prosperous family who can study in a private university, you are not unemployed, you have all your basic services covered, you can eat, and still... you consider yourself poor?"

Really, what Jane told me surprised me a lot. With this phrase, she basicly highlighted the real troubles of people who consider themselves POOR in the world. And it is this: They don't value what they have, even if they have all the physical richness they actually have, if in your mind you are POOR, then you will live POOR forever, because there is no worst poor man than that who has the resources to step ahead but prefers to criticize and complain about life.

Thanks Jane Doe, for telling me this experience, it was very useful, because it has opened my mind. I love you mom.

The need for travel

Since I was a child, I've been accustomed to travel, live in different places, even countries, meet new cultures, make new friends, have unique experiences, etc...

If we talk about countries, I've lived in Peru, Bolivia, Puerto Rico, Colombia and Venezuela. All these in Latin America. I've studied in 8 schools in total, graduating at a british one in my birth country (Markham College). My parents always cared to give me the benefit of speaking english as well as spanish, which has served me most so far, and I am infinitely grateful.

I've made friends in all these countries, and by consecuence have a long list of contacts, and now with the Facebook it is easier to keep in touch.

I've studied in 2 universities (because of travel), and I'm thinking on going to live to Australia in about 2 or 3 years, since I went for 50 days in 2007 to see how it was, and I loved it. It's another world, a country where everyone can do ANYTHING inside the limts of law and individual freedom.

Well, the purpose of this article is to highlight a need I would call "The traveller's sindrome" (if there isn't one already).

I'll explain it with my example: I can't stay in one place, doing the same routine for more than 4 months, and I have measured it almost exactly. Past the 4 months I start to feel bored, powerless, desperate, and all of its synonyms. And I think it is because even though we human beings have turned into sedentary, sometime boring, rutinary and monotonous, we still have our nomadic side, that which pushes us into looking for new things, adventures, discoveries. If not... Why would tourism even exist?

I have the belief that people need to travel at least 2 or 3 times a year, even if it is not far. Raise the adventurer spirit, that curiosity that we need so much in today's life to stand out, hability that can be developed via a travel. Another competence to develop is improvisation, because even though it is always better to plan a trip, so when we arrive we are not lost in the air (unless you are a veteran backpacker), usually not all we have planned happens, because as one English friend I met in Australia told me once (her name is Lucy): "Life is what is happening while you are planning your future, so don't plan TOO MUCH, or you'll never life".

I will continue on with this in another post, because this is enough as background information.