Life is a Journey

A few years ago I went on a road trip across Canada following the film festival trail. I knew my greyhound pass was still valid. I also knew the idea of spending a seemingly endless number of hours squashed in a bus seat from Toronto all the way to Edmonton filled me with dread. Flying was out of the question. “Why don’t you try the train?” Sara, a fellow backpacker I had met at the hostel in Toronto suggested helpfully. I had the website open in seconds and lo-and-behold, there it was: my very own Viarail bargain.
I did not regret having changed my initial plans. I had two comfy seats to myself and quickly got to know my fellow travellers. At first it felt a bit strange to be “stuck” on a train for such a long time. On the other hand, due to a lack of things to do, the journey was a pleasantly peaceful experience.
We all soon fell into a routine of eating, sleeping, reading, and conversations with people who after a day or two felt like extended family rather than strangers. Having spent most of my trip at busy movie theatres with lots of fun networking events, it occurred to me on my last night that I could just organise one right here on the train! Surely a party in the glass-topped viewing car would be a welcome diversion from staring out the window watching miles of forest passing by us for the third night in a row?
So, I invited people to our impromptu celebration. After dinner, I was ready in the viewing car curious , and a little nervous, to see if and how many people would turn up. To my delight we ended up filling nearly the whole carriage. 25 people hailing from all corners of the globe who had been strangers when boarding the train in Toronto were now chatting animatedly as if it was a Saturday night in a busy downtown bar. It was a wonderful evening. With the stars above us, the prairies of Saskatchewan flying past us in the dark and some nice drinks in our hands we took turns telling anecdotes from our travels and even “real” ghost stories towards the end of the night. I wanted to stay on the train forever.
In the past I had often heard people say “the journey is the destination,” but until then had never fully grasped its true meaning. The beauty of it is that these things do not require much money or a lot of planning. Anyone can have the time of their lives. We just need to remember to recognise good advice when we hear it, be a bit more spontaneous from time to time and let the good times find us. Easy as that.