Citizen of the World

Do you want to be a power in the World? Then be yourself!! The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers, but most of all, the world needs dreamers who do... Once you believe in yourself you can risk Curiosity, Wonder, Spontaneity, Delight and all other experiences that reveal the human Spirit... Believe!!

Why am I traveling? I am taking this leave of absence and traveling the World because I want to! I am in search of an extraordinary journey, a grassroots effort to make a difference in the World. Perhaps to discover what it means to be a citizen of the World and a member of the human race… not separated by borders, belief systems, skin color, or political doctrine. The possibilities are endless and I’m preparing to take off on a round the world adventure! There have been many changes is my life in the last couple of months and this trip has been a dream of mine for years and I’m so excited to finally make it come true. I want/need to take time to think about things that matter to me rather than what is next on my list of things to do. I want to fumble through my phrase books, play charades with locals and attempt to bargain with vendors until they somewhat understand what I'm trying to say. I want to feel lonely and really miss the things that matter most to me. I want to hike to the top of mountains, trek through the jungle, swim in as many bodies of water than I come across and gasp at the sheer beauty of this world. I want to volunteer and serve people that really need my help, and in return, be reminded of how incredibly blessed I am.

I don't want to look back when I am older and regret that I didn’t allow myself to experience this world the way I wanted to. I am so thankful to have so many amazing and supportive people in my life that accept me for all of my crazy ways. Words seem so inadequate for me to express the way I feel about my family and friends – I would be completely lost without them, and I hope they all know what a difference they make in my life. I am so excited to start my trip, but I will definitely miss everyone.... but technically it’s not really “goodbye,” it’s just, “See you in a few months” Plus if anyone gets the travel bug while I’m gone, we can meet up along the way!

If you are at first lonely, be patient....

If you are at first lonely, be patient.

If you’ve not been alone much, or if when you were, you weren’t okay with it, then just wait. You’ll find it’s fine to be alone once you’re embracing it.

You can start with the acceptable places, the bathroom, the coffee shop, the library, where you can stall and read the paper, where you can get your caffeine fix and sit and stay there. Where you can browse the stacks and smell the books; you’re not supposed to talk much anyway so it’s safe there.

There is also the gym, if you’re shy, you can hang out with yourself and mirrors, you can put headphones in.

Then there’s public transportation, because we all gotta go places.

And there’s mediation, no one will think less if your hanging with your breath seeking peace and salvation.

Start simple. Things you may have previously avoided based on your avoid being alone principles.

The lunch counter, where you will be surrounded by “chow downers”, employees who only have an hour and their spouses work across town, and they, like you, will be alone.

Resist the urge to hang out with your cell phone.

When you are comfortable with “eat lunch and run”, take yourself out for dinner; a restaurant with linen and Silverware. You’re no less an intriguing a person when you are eating solo desert and cleaning the whip cream from the dish with your finger. In fact, some people at full tables will wish they were where you were.

Go to the movies. Where it’s dark and soothing, alone in your seat amidst a fleeting community.

And then take yourself out dancing, to a club where no one knows you, stand on the outside of the floor until the lights convince you more and more and the music shows you. Dance like no one’s watching because they’re probably not. And if they are, assume it is with best human intentions. The way bodies move genuinely to beats, is after-all, gorgeous and affecting. Dance until you’re sweating. And beads of perspiration remind you of life’s best things. Down your back, like a book of blessings.

Go to the woods alone, and the trees and squirrels will watch for you. Go to an unfamiliar city, roam the streets, they are always statues to talk to, and benches made for sitting gives strangers a shared existence if only for a minute, and these moments can be so uplifting and the conversation you get in by sitting alone on benches, might of never happened had you not been there by yourself.

Society is afraid of alone though. Like lonely hearts are wasting away in basements. Like people must have problems if after awhile nobody is dating them.

But lonely is a freedom that breathes easy and weightless, and lonely is healing if you make it.

You can stand swathed by groups and mobs or hands with your partner, look both further and farther in the endless quest for company.

But no one is in your head. And by the time you translate your thoughts an essence of them maybe lost or perhaps it is just kept. Perhaps in the interest of loving oneself, perhaps all those “sappy slogans” from pre-school over to high school groaning, we’re tokens for holding the lonely at bay.

Cause if you’re happy in your head, then solitude is blessed, and alone is okay.

It’s okay if no one believes like you, all experiences unique, no one has the same synapses, can’t think like you, for this be relived, keeps things interesting, life’s magic things in reach, and it doesn’t mean you aren’t connected, and the community is not present, just take the perspective you get from being one person in one head and feel the effects of it.

Take silence and respect it.

If you have an art that needs a practice, stop neglecting it, if your family doesn’t get you or a religious sect is not meant for you, don’t obsess about it.

You could be in an instant surrounded if you need it.

If your heart is bleeding, make the best of it.

There is heat in freezing, be a testament.

SOURCE: Tanya Davis