Routes That Led to the Roundabout
(A view of the Philippine Sea.Taken somewhere in Bulusan, Sorsogon en route to Bulusan Lake, 2016)
I had my first taste of travelling a significant distance when I was selected to be a part of an exchange program to the United States. At the age of 15 I, along with 36 other students from all over the Philippines, was given the opportunity for a cross-cultural experience. I stayed in Wisconsin for a year, and being a teenager with the naivete of a provincial boy, I was overwhelmed with the variety of things that this experience exposed me to. This is not to say that the experience was detrimental to my character, of course. As a matter of fact, it did the opposite.
After experiencing another culture and witnessing the different colors of the global spectrum, I became more open to things. I developed a sense of vision that encompasses not only the things I got from my roots, but also those imparted to me by people from the other side of the world. It was with this growth that awakened the traveler in me. It kept on tugging on my consciousness as if pushing me to continuously seek adventures, to immerse in other cultures--to be one with the rest of the world.
(Outward looking, trying to meditate and put things in perspective with the aid of the tranquility brought about by the sunset in Uluwatu Cliff, Bali, Indonesia)
For the succeeding years of my life, college happened and this call to travel subsided. I had different priorities at the time, and as someone from a middle class family where travelling is regarded as luxury rather than experiential learning, I had to keep my eye on "the diploma". Flash forward to the present time, I now belong to the capitalist jungle with 5 years of worth of "sell-able skills" up my sleeve. But it was a mess I had to go through to get here.
In the past 5 years, I have hopped over a total of 8 different residence addresses. I have tried mastering different sorts of hobbies, and have moved from one job to another, each with different field. From being a writing consultant, to a graphic designer, visual display artist to customer service representative, I have filled each of those corporate shoes. My mom, being a Gen X, was not happy with this. I mean, yes, I understand. They come from a generation of clock in-clock out work, where stability and consistency matters most. But I do not come from that generation, nor do I live in it. I am a millennial with a zeal for new things; a soul who needs to keep moving, one who needs to keep experiencing change--a soul who constantly needs to travel.
(At the edge of one of the rice weirs in Ubud's world famous Tegalalang Rice Terraces)
After suppressing it for so long, I decided to follow the beckoning whispers of adventure. And that has brought me at the center of this roundabout where I am presented with numerous routes to take. And like what I have been doing with life in general, I am taking this head on, unsure which path would lead me where. But isn't that the essence of being a traveler--taking on unfamiliar roads, not expecting what lies ahead, delighted by getting lost one too many times? After all, it is by getting lost that a soul is forced to discover creative ways of finding home.
(A peak through different lenses. Taken at Batu Caves, Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, 2017)
So join me, a millennial who doesn't have everything figured out (even though baby boomers keep on telling us we already should have by this time), as I stand at the roundabout and pick which adventures to get lost in one destination at a time.
