japan. day: 3, 4, 5
my legs were wobbling underneath the weight of the bags strapped on my back and over my shoulders. hunched like an aged woman i pressed forward hoping to balance out the burden i carried with slow and steady steps. tired and a bit delirious from the 20 hours of flying i followed the crowd instead of the Japanese signs leading me to customs. i had arrived. airports are an interesting place. there is nothing in the world like experiencing an international airport. so many cultures crammed together with one purpose, a destination. kind of like the olympics, or how i would imagine the olympics to be… just like being at one enormous airport. (in case you were wondering i dreamed of being an olympian clear through high school. my sport you ask? ice skating. the dream still lives!). even with heavy eyes i watched how people moved about each other, weaving in and and out. everyone carefully avoiding physical contact, but all slightly curious to observe the other, silently trying not to got caught spying. it is a curiosity that we all have… wondering what and who is out there in the world beyond us. how do they think, function, live, laugh, relate? all of this intrigues me. inspires me. i think it opens me to want to live life bigger. to be apart of something greater than myself, beyond my four walls, and larger than my circle of friends and acquaintances. i also could have been a bit delusional from the flight, but i think that desire lives in all of us. right?… the longing to make a little difference in this big world. and that’s what i want. to make a difference.
while debriefing my trip with my fabulous sister, she said (i think from a book she had been reading or maybe she is just wise), “it isn’t that hard to know what you want to do with your life. the hard part is knowing what you want to give up, in order to do what you really want. “
i couldn’t agree more.
by anjuli
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