Tuesday
Out Of Your Comfort Zone
Do you still remember the first time you got on a flight to someplace far. I do - I couldn't stop squirming in my seat - and I had the biggest smile on my face. The anticipation.. was beyond words. When I was younger, I was dying of envy when people tell me about their holiday trips. I was not privilege to enjoy this. I would squirm in my seat telling myself “one day… I will”.
As I was studying, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to try and get my degree outside, but unfortunately being raised by a single mother, who I am her only daughter, she started wailing when she heard I wanted to study outside. Reason being – she knows- one day I will not come back. Given the opportunity – I will find my way to live there. Don’t get me wrong I love my comfort zone. I love the familiarity and security that I have to have lived all my life in Malaysia. However there are times in your life where things become a routine, and you needed something new. You wonder what’s out there and you want the opportunity to start new. To re-create yourself in a place you have not written any history.
My first trip that got me a passport was to the neighboring country. Although it was a short trip – I was still excited at seeing how life was there. As similar as it was in KL, with “lansi” mofo’s and fast pace people and the no smoking clubs- I had fun just to be able to see that.
Bali changed me. I met random people and walked down the streets alone. It was fun to talk to random people from all over the world and to see their perspective on certain aspects of life (It also helped that people find me painfully different and beautiful-, which is not what men in my country would agree). Like a junkie- I craved more.
During breakfast, we talked of the things we have seen, the adventure that we endured (countless – walking with MIAMI stoners- ordering and ran out, being in Japan sleeping at the airport and the lack of money for cab fare, the LaPerla drug incident in Puerto Rico, and the half nude gay pose German that I met in Sydney- just to name some), I realize how lucky I have been. How I hope, no matter what I have seen, I wouldn’t be immune to it. That I will still feel like the first day I arrive to NYC. I don’t want to lose the high!
Sometimes, we go places and we took pictures so that we can show to other people where we have been. But by end of the day – we look at the things and experience that we were able to witness- bad or good (as long as you don’t end up having your body parts sold in the black market) – we begin to understand why we go through those long haul flights and spend all those money.
Now if only I can convince my mother to let me quit my job and live in some foreign country for 2 months as a waitress.
As I was studying, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to try and get my degree outside, but unfortunately being raised by a single mother, who I am her only daughter, she started wailing when she heard I wanted to study outside. Reason being – she knows- one day I will not come back. Given the opportunity – I will find my way to live there. Don’t get me wrong I love my comfort zone. I love the familiarity and security that I have to have lived all my life in Malaysia. However there are times in your life where things become a routine, and you needed something new. You wonder what’s out there and you want the opportunity to start new. To re-create yourself in a place you have not written any history.
My first trip that got me a passport was to the neighboring country. Although it was a short trip – I was still excited at seeing how life was there. As similar as it was in KL, with “lansi” mofo’s and fast pace people and the no smoking clubs- I had fun just to be able to see that.
Bali changed me. I met random people and walked down the streets alone. It was fun to talk to random people from all over the world and to see their perspective on certain aspects of life (It also helped that people find me painfully different and beautiful-, which is not what men in my country would agree). Like a junkie- I craved more.During breakfast, we talked of the things we have seen, the adventure that we endured (countless – walking with MIAMI stoners- ordering and ran out, being in Japan sleeping at the airport and the lack of money for cab fare, the LaPerla drug incident in Puerto Rico, and the half nude gay pose German that I met in Sydney- just to name some), I realize how lucky I have been. How I hope, no matter what I have seen, I wouldn’t be immune to it. That I will still feel like the first day I arrive to NYC. I don’t want to lose the high!
Sometimes, we go places and we took pictures so that we can show to other people where we have been. But by end of the day – we look at the things and experience that we were able to witness- bad or good (as long as you don’t end up having your body parts sold in the black market) – we begin to understand why we go through those long haul flights and spend all those money.
Now if only I can convince my mother to let me quit my job and live in some foreign country for 2 months as a waitress.
xoxo
Rollo Tomassi
0 comments:
Post a Comment