It's been 5 months...

"Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving."

- Terry Prachett, A Hat Full of Sky

-----

So it's been about five months since I had a substantial post about anything. I recently got back from east Africa, where I've been traipsing around for four months. I considered blogging on the go, but the awful wifi available in east Africa (or at least, where I was) destroyed any hope of that. So I'll be recounting bits and pieces of my trip from now on.

Before I left, people were telling me "wow", "that's so cool", "you're so brave", "I could never do that", and they still are, even now that I'm back. But really, I think going after what you want, whatever it may be, requires courage. I would be lying if I said I wasn't intimidated at all; there were days when I had second thoughts about doing it. But once you start going down the list of things that could possibly go wrong, you will realise that it is endless and if you let your fears overwhelm you and stop you from doing what you really want, you'll forever be trapped in your own comfort zone, comfortably miserable. So to those who are thinking of doing it, I say, just go.

Four months is not that long, neither is it that short. I've learnt so much in my time away, seen and experienced so much, met so many new people and heard their stories, that it has only "worsened" my already severe case of wanderlust. But there is also the downside to going away for a substantial period of time - life goes on back home, you miss out on events, things and people change...it's not like time freezes back home while you go wandering around. You come home and things are different, people are different, in small ways and big.

For me it's been hard adjusting to life back here - I came home to sad news and it's really affected my joy in homecoming. Also trivial things like the weather, missing your travelling companions, not being able to remember where everything is kept in your room (because you packed it right before you left)... And having to deal with first world problems - I am having such a hard time wearing proper shoes again. It's been flipflops or barefoot for the past four months, and I'm getting so many blisters now from trying to wear shoes it's not even funny. The sad irony of it is that most of the children in the village I lived in couldn't even afford shoes so they had to go barefoot.

But if I could do it all over again, I would still go.