Everything was blurry. I couldn’t tell if this was from the gargantuan amount of alcohol I had consumed the night before or if I still had tomato paste in my eyes. The La Tomatina after party had been a huge success. At least that’s what I remembered telling myself as I walked back to the hostel well after the sun had risen over the town of Valencia.
The day was just beginning, but my current journey was coming to an end. I didn’t want to sleep before I jumped on my transport to Barcelona. On the one hand I was worried that if I closed my eyes, even just for a minute, I would miss the bus. On the other I knew that sleeping would mark the end of the scholarship.
A motorcycle, a bus, three flights, another bus and the subway got me to Berlin, Germany. A long walk, a bus, a train, three more flights and a tuk-tuk would get me back to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, three weeks later. When I left my cheap, unreliable motorcycle in Asia I was unsure of what to expect during my World Nomads travel writing scholarship in Europe. Now that it was time to start making my way back across the globe I was unsure of what to expect for my entire future.
One moment I was sitting in a budget $5-a-night guesthouse in Thakhek, Laos. The next I was drinking boutique German beer in one of the coolest hostels in Berlin, Industrie Palast. A submission to this writing competition and the subsequent email stating I had been chosen as one of the winners steered my life in a completely different direction. Unexpected, of course, but definitely appreciated!
When an opportunity is presented to us, we have to seize it. On top of that, I believe you need to work hard to create your own opportunities.
I had ample time sitting on comfortable transport thanks to GoEuro to think about how things could possibly pan out in the next few weeks and months once I return back to my ‘home’ in South East Asia. Rather than be disappointed that my time in Europe had come to an end, I was incredibly excited to start challenging myself to make the most of the rewards that came with the scholarship.
The closing lines from my favourite poem, ‘The Road Not Taken’ by Robert Frost, are:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
When I eventually did decide to close my eyes and rest I was excited at where I would be when I opened them. Which road would I find myself on? What direction would I take? Keeping true to my style, I imagine it will be the one less travelled by; The path that leads towards the unexpected. Only time will tell.
