Wanderlust

The most amazing part of traveling is exploring and finding yourself. The best part of getting lost is not always knowing where you are going.

Remind yourself, it is okay to wander.

It is okay to not have a plan, to take each day moment by moment and just appreciate the now. 

Spur of the moment, I bought a bus ticket to Nerja for a long weekend. An eight hour bus ride later, I was standing on the sand of a beautiful beach, looking out across the Mediterranean Sea. The African continent lay just across that beautiful stretch of blue.

And that was mind blowing.

Staying at home, safe in our bubbles, we forget how large and how grand the world is. There is more out there than the web that we create. Even as I become more comfortable in Madrid, and create a network between my piso, my school, the metro lines I take everyday and the markets that I visit frequently, I have to remind myself to stop, and to look around. To appreciate the magnificent city that I live in.

I also have to remind myself to keep going, and to keep pushing the limits. To be safe and secure is to fall into idle fantasies. Safety nets only make us complicit. 

I want to keep exploring, keep pushing the limits, and see where I can go.

Maybe, just maybe, that is how the original explorers felt, standing on the edge of the Mediterranean and looking out, wondering what is out there. Maybe we aren't so different than the famed Ferdinand Magellan, Christopher Colmbus, or Amerigo Vespucci. 

During my time in Spain I have already realized that comfort is overrated, and only when pushed to new limits can we expand our minds.

I think I will go further, and push into Africa next. Morocco, anyone?