I left Seychelles now 4 days ago. I feel utterly miserable and heartbroken, and I feel like part of me stayed over there. I am having a lot of trouble coping with all the emotions conflicting in me right now, and even though I leave for another adventure in 2 days, I still spend every single waking hour wishing I could hop on a plane back to Seychelles. So here are some of my reflections of the last 6 months of my life.
The most important thing I get from this trip is that I do not have any regrets. None. Nothing I wish I had done differently, nothing I wish I had done or not. I have enjoyed every single second, taken every opportunity and made the choices that would make ME feel good without worrying about anything anyone else had to say or about what people would think. I have taken every emotion in, whether good or bad, and dealt with them.
Now I would advise to anyone to take a year off and discover the world. The world is so beautiful. DO IT. I have met so many incredible people and experienced so much new stuff and I have realized that life is so beautiful.
I have obviously learned a lot about marine life, marine conservation and coral reefs. I have also learned a lot about working in a dive shop and in the tourism industry. It was quite challenging and a little rough sometimes, but in the end, it was a great experience to have. I swam with 3 whale sharks, a manta ray, numerous sharks and dolphins, I have seen 100+ turtles, been urchined 10+ times in the legs, and been surrounded by schools of hundreds of rays and fishes.
But this trip was obviously not all about marine biology and diving. Well, most of it was, but it's everything that happened on the side that have changed me and helped me discover who I really am.
I have gotten out of my comfort zone every single day and do not regret any bits of it. I have danced on bars, danced in the street, rode in the back of many trucks, went inside a club without shoes on, got free drinks from French/US/British/Spanish/Dutch navy men, and watched sunsets and sunrises on the beach countless times. I have sneaked inside hotels in the middle of the night and swam in their pool , or climbed fences of these same hotels to get shelter from the pouring rain.
I have been on a near-sinking boat, where we had to get our life jackets out and jump out, and I went through shock-management for a week. First time in my life I was terrified of the ocean. It's all good now, but I will never forget how I felt the next 48 hours after that. It was all about mental toughness.
I swam with a manta ray, which as some of you know was one of my dreams. And when I free-dove with that manta, I remember thinking "wow I could die right now". My heart could have exploded. It was perfect and so beautiful. I didn't want to go back up.
I have been robbed 3 times, was terrified of my own house, and would wake up in the middlde of the night if I heard a leaf move. I left the country with basically nothing left. No wallet, no credit card, no license, no camera, no iPod...I knew my way around the police station and could get in and out without anyone stopping me.
I learned to live without constant access to Internet, emails, newspapers, Facebook and other crap. And guess what? You don't need all of these. Just get out there and discover the world, nothing will happen if you stay in front of your computer or have your eyes set on your smartphone the whole day. Go out there, meet people, embrace the new experiences, say yes to something new and learn from it.
I have learned to husk a coconut. I have learned to recognize the differences between mango trees from papaya trees, passion fruits, breadfruits, guava and other tropical trees. I have learned to make bread, to cook for 40+ people, to scale a fish, to make breadfruit chips.
I learned to drive a boat and enjoyed the freedom of driving it around the island. I have spent virtually 5 months shoe-less, walking barefoot along the roads and the beaches.
I spent countless hours on the beach watching the sunsets, the sunrises or the stars. I have hitchhiked so many times my mom would yell at me if she only knew.
I have played dominoes (the national sport over there) until 3am so many nights, drinking a beer and listening to reggae music while they were trying to teach me Kreol (completely fluent in Kreol now!).
I have sang along to Bob Marley with one of my really good friend at the guitar, and then we were joined by so many people singing and dancing with us. This moment will for ever be in my mind.
But most importantly I met people. I have experienced the local life. I met incredible people who really taught me about life and about who I want to become. That's what travels are for you know, growing up.I also think I have inspired some people, well at least two because I know they told me. I have inspired them to be better people. Because you know, life is hard over there. It's not all beaches and sun and paradise, life is real tough. But again, I am so glad to have seen it from this perspective and not the tourist perspective. I have been told I was someone very special, that I was so beautiful and I didn't even know it. These people have changed me so much - now I tell people what I think of them, and I have become a very honest and sincere person, and in peace with my inner self. I have learned to love and trust easily and freely, because you get more out of life that way.
And finally, I met my chouchou, B., who turned my world upside-down. I have discovered that somewhere out there, there are very nice guys with beautiful souls and hearts. And he was one of them and it kills me every second to know that he lives there and I had to go back home. See, maybe my only regret is to not have met him earlier, but there is nothing I can really do about that, can I? But hey who knows, I believe in fate. Remember that one guy I worked with at the aquarium in Boston two years ago and we met each other in Seychelles and we had no idea? The world is terribly small.
But every single minute of every waking hour I wish I could take a plane back there. It's very hard but I am so so thankful to have lived something like that.
It has been one hell of a ride. Thank you Seychelles.
And thank you all for reading this blog over the last 6 months. Now what? Well I am about to embark on a new journey to Africa, where I will be traveling around Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi and Zimbabwe for 2 months. I have no idea how my Internet access is going to be so I will not make a blog for this trip.
After that, I will have to settle at home for a bit, make some money again. And finally, I have been accepted into my top graduate school choice at the University of Miami, so it looks like I will be going back to the USA in a couple of months.
The most important thing I get from this trip is that I do not have any regrets. None. Nothing I wish I had done differently, nothing I wish I had done or not. I have enjoyed every single second, taken every opportunity and made the choices that would make ME feel good without worrying about anything anyone else had to say or about what people would think. I have taken every emotion in, whether good or bad, and dealt with them.
Now I would advise to anyone to take a year off and discover the world. The world is so beautiful. DO IT. I have met so many incredible people and experienced so much new stuff and I have realized that life is so beautiful.
I have obviously learned a lot about marine life, marine conservation and coral reefs. I have also learned a lot about working in a dive shop and in the tourism industry. It was quite challenging and a little rough sometimes, but in the end, it was a great experience to have. I swam with 3 whale sharks, a manta ray, numerous sharks and dolphins, I have seen 100+ turtles, been urchined 10+ times in the legs, and been surrounded by schools of hundreds of rays and fishes.
But this trip was obviously not all about marine biology and diving. Well, most of it was, but it's everything that happened on the side that have changed me and helped me discover who I really am.
I have gotten out of my comfort zone every single day and do not regret any bits of it. I have danced on bars, danced in the street, rode in the back of many trucks, went inside a club without shoes on, got free drinks from French/US/British/Spanish/Dutch navy men, and watched sunsets and sunrises on the beach countless times. I have sneaked inside hotels in the middle of the night and swam in their pool , or climbed fences of these same hotels to get shelter from the pouring rain.
I have been on a near-sinking boat, where we had to get our life jackets out and jump out, and I went through shock-management for a week. First time in my life I was terrified of the ocean. It's all good now, but I will never forget how I felt the next 48 hours after that. It was all about mental toughness.
I swam with a manta ray, which as some of you know was one of my dreams. And when I free-dove with that manta, I remember thinking "wow I could die right now". My heart could have exploded. It was perfect and so beautiful. I didn't want to go back up.
I have been robbed 3 times, was terrified of my own house, and would wake up in the middlde of the night if I heard a leaf move. I left the country with basically nothing left. No wallet, no credit card, no license, no camera, no iPod...I knew my way around the police station and could get in and out without anyone stopping me.
I learned to live without constant access to Internet, emails, newspapers, Facebook and other crap. And guess what? You don't need all of these. Just get out there and discover the world, nothing will happen if you stay in front of your computer or have your eyes set on your smartphone the whole day. Go out there, meet people, embrace the new experiences, say yes to something new and learn from it.
I have learned to husk a coconut. I have learned to recognize the differences between mango trees from papaya trees, passion fruits, breadfruits, guava and other tropical trees. I have learned to make bread, to cook for 40+ people, to scale a fish, to make breadfruit chips.
I learned to drive a boat and enjoyed the freedom of driving it around the island. I have spent virtually 5 months shoe-less, walking barefoot along the roads and the beaches.
I spent countless hours on the beach watching the sunsets, the sunrises or the stars. I have hitchhiked so many times my mom would yell at me if she only knew.
I have played dominoes (the national sport over there) until 3am so many nights, drinking a beer and listening to reggae music while they were trying to teach me Kreol (completely fluent in Kreol now!).
I have sang along to Bob Marley with one of my really good friend at the guitar, and then we were joined by so many people singing and dancing with us. This moment will for ever be in my mind.
But most importantly I met people. I have experienced the local life. I met incredible people who really taught me about life and about who I want to become. That's what travels are for you know, growing up.I also think I have inspired some people, well at least two because I know they told me. I have inspired them to be better people. Because you know, life is hard over there. It's not all beaches and sun and paradise, life is real tough. But again, I am so glad to have seen it from this perspective and not the tourist perspective. I have been told I was someone very special, that I was so beautiful and I didn't even know it. These people have changed me so much - now I tell people what I think of them, and I have become a very honest and sincere person, and in peace with my inner self. I have learned to love and trust easily and freely, because you get more out of life that way.
And finally, I met my chouchou, B., who turned my world upside-down. I have discovered that somewhere out there, there are very nice guys with beautiful souls and hearts. And he was one of them and it kills me every second to know that he lives there and I had to go back home. See, maybe my only regret is to not have met him earlier, but there is nothing I can really do about that, can I? But hey who knows, I believe in fate. Remember that one guy I worked with at the aquarium in Boston two years ago and we met each other in Seychelles and we had no idea? The world is terribly small.
But every single minute of every waking hour I wish I could take a plane back there. It's very hard but I am so so thankful to have lived something like that.
It has been one hell of a ride. Thank you Seychelles.
And thank you all for reading this blog over the last 6 months. Now what? Well I am about to embark on a new journey to Africa, where I will be traveling around Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi and Zimbabwe for 2 months. I have no idea how my Internet access is going to be so I will not make a blog for this trip.
After that, I will have to settle at home for a bit, make some money again. And finally, I have been accepted into my top graduate school choice at the University of Miami, so it looks like I will be going back to the USA in a couple of months.
