Branching Out

I'll never forget the day that I took my first steps, the leaden weight of my body seemed too much for my legs to carry at the time. You see, this is because I was 18 years old; and the steps I'm talking about are not the clumsy steps we learn to take as infants but rather the first steps we take in early adulthood as we begin to make our way in the world. Ironically, in early adulthood I would be just as clumsy stumbling and falling just as much as an infant learning to put one foot ahead of the other, while trying impossibly to maintain balance but making sure that I always had fun.

The year was 2010 and it was early January in Durban, the humidity was relentless. I had just turned 18; learnt to drive; made love to a woman for the first time and received my Grade 12. Things were happening quickly for me and people around me would say things like 'the world is your oyster' and I would politely nod my head, grateful for the compliment and hoping for an expression that related my life to a more desirable food.

I was walking through the check-in gates at the airport about to depart on a flight that, after a number of changeovers, would eventually get me to Toronto Canada; where I was to spend a year. There were a number of factors that culminated in me being on my way to Canada that day. I'll narrow those down for you: I excelled in rugby at school and enjoyed it; I had family members in Canada: I had Canadian citizenship; but mostly I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to do with my life and it seemed that traveling to the opposite side of the world for a year was as good an idea as any. All it took was a quick online search of rugby clubs in Canada, and I found the one that I wanted to play for and began setting the plan into motion.

The confidence with which I approached that year was telling of my brazen youthfulness but also my insulated naivety. I had never really left home except for a few sporting tours and so I had absolutely no idea what to expect, and as my departure date loomed I grew simultaneously more apprehensive and more excited.

There were many hugs and kisses from crying relatives at the airport before I went through the check-in gates. I left my friends and family and walked, for the first time on my own, towards the plane. Each step that I took was harder than the last; and the sinking feeling in my stomach eventually gave way to a growing sense of freedom and adventure as I first took my first steps.