Solitary Dandelion

When I listen to my parents speak of their lively escapades set in the 70s and 80s I cant help but feel a little envious. They were no older than I am now and have some of the most incredible stories that I have ever heard. Whenever a tale bubbles to the surface a giant smile accompanies it and never seems to end. Mum says “ah, I miss those days” and that’s when it hits me. Will I have those moments when I’m sixty-three and talking to my children about my life long before they were born? Without context this sounds ludicrous but hear me out. Being a twenty something year old in the 21st century is a whole new ball game from my perspective. Its get rich, be successful, get the house, get the perfect partner and do it as quick as you can. Well, its safe to say I well and truly missed that train. Now, I’m not saying there is anything wrong with that way of life but it doesn’t flow off the tongue as naturally as when you hear my mother talk about her trips to Egypt or Israel or the smoke escaping from a barbecue they just lit for a weekend full of laughter and friends.

Mum and dad in ‘The Dead Sea’

To feel a little lost in a world that wants you to have your feet so firmly planted on the ground is like being a solitary dandelion in a field of emerald grass. You’re not like everyone else, but it doesn’t necessarily make you feel special. You appear to be the odd one out even when you’re the most colourful of the lot. We’re happy to possess and observe flowers but we’re too afraid to be a wildflower. Fearlessly blooming untamed and free in a microcosm tormented by conventionality. That is what being a wildflower is. Unapologetically thriving within a society that misunderstands you. It’s a rather complex feeling to crave something that is a little off centre to the rest. You constantly feel like you are taking one step forward and two steps back whilst watching everyone else sail away. I certainly am guilty of impatiently wanting things to fall into place, however, I know that this is deeply influenced by a society who is rushing to be somebody yesterday. I want to find peace more than anything in the fact that I have no idea at all. That I am a little lost and a little rough around the edges but that is ok. The process is a long and mentally challenging one that I am constantly throwing punches at. But here and there we all miss one and it takes a wildflower to get back up and throw another.

My mum recalls days spent bathing under the summer sun topless on Maroubra beach (something that is near impossible now because nipples have become overly sexualised) and swimming until her skin resembled supple dates. It could have been any day of the week between shifts at the neighbourhood chemist but she always managed to mix work and play beautifully. Then a couple years went by and this little thing we call the travel bug latched itself onto her. She worked as a nanny in Denmark, as a bartender in London serving the likes of Freddie Mercury and strolled her way through Russia, Sweden, Ireland and so much more. Carefree, living her best life and not worrying about anyone else's journey but her own. It’s inspiring to say the least. When I hear these stories, I envision myself getting onto that plane and exploring fragments of the world I have never seen. It genuinely inflates my passion for life and I am not one to get excited too often. As a child growing up my parents always made sure to involve my siblings and I in any travel adventures they went on. Whether it was to Bali or Thailand or London or Brazil, my mum and dad truly believed in the magic of travelling and they made sure to pass it onto their kids. I don’t need an apartment, marriage and a baby by 23. Don’t get me wrong I want all of those things but I want them when i’m ready to settle down and now isn’t the time for that. Isn’t the real excitement in the unknown adventures we have ahead of us and the boundless freedom we have to make memories that will last us an entire lifetime?

Back home, one friend has just purchased her first apartment, others are protesting that they’re working so damn hard and the other is talking about having baby fever. I’ve been away for five out of the last seven months travelling the world enjoying being 22, the contrast baffles me. I know it sounds like there is no competition, most people tell me i’m ‘living the life’ and yet this life isn’t the simplest path I believe I could have chosen. It’s not ‘the life’ I’m living, it’s just my life as a result of my choices. Almost three years ago I fell for someone who lives seventeen-thousand kilometres away from me. It was something that most people told me I was foolish for. If I had of listened to those voices and let them into my head, I might have given up on one of the most kind hearted humans I have in my life today. Post 2013, I selected a career fresh out of school, fell into a area of my craft that I never said I would (and that I still don’t know if I necessarily love), spent the next four years developing my skills and then without question got diagnosed with the travel bug that my parents caught back when they sported babyish faces.

I had my first ever Christmas away from my immediate family last year, my 4th festive season away from home in Australia, the longest period of time I have ever spent away from my abode in total, wrote for a MotoGP magazine during the 2017 season (something polar opposite to my previous training) and had to drop my boyfriend back to the airport a couple weeks ago for whoever knows how long. But, I am so proud of myself for achieving these mile stones even if I can’t physically show any of you. Most people say to me “I couldn’t do what you do” but then they tell me “i’m living the life”. Its the ultimate contradiction. Everyone is unique and no one should be judged, but why does it feel like we always are. If you gave me the opportunity to switch to a normal nine to five job and feel the comfort of weekly pay and then have the possibility of purchasing my very own property, i’d probably laugh and tell you where to go. I wouldn’t change a single thing but that does not mean I find it easy.

I wrote this because it’s scary. The constant messages asking me what I plan on doing with my life or the constant indirect comments about how hard everybody else is working. I don’t think anyone could ever imagine how hard my brain (and every other persons brain) works to hold strong to what I (you, they) believe in. We are diverse creatures with a singular force that prevails above all else. Our determination to always be a work in progress and transpire into something better than the day before. There is no competition for who reaches the peak before another and no reason to judge a life without the education of ones story. We should all be a little kinder to ourselves and one another. Whether you want all of that right now or you want something completely different, that is valid and you are more than entitled to it. But if there are other people out there, feeling that cord being pulled inside of them, you are not alone and I hope one day all the adventures you have can be shared down the line and made into beautiful stories that inspire your friends and family. I truly believe that the most treasured heirlooms are the memories of family and the stories we can pass down. What’s a life worth living if you don’t even have a story to tell.

These two amazing human beings inspire me everyday. Love you Mum & Dad.

#Blog #Travel #Inspire #Explore #Adventure #Unique #Write #Read