Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, 2014
Travel! You will feel taller!
So you start off in a small village from a small country in
Europe, where everything around you seems new and interesting in your first
years. You discover the trees and the bees and the nature around you, and then,
slowly you move on and you look up to
the sky and imagine something bigger but you have no idea how it would look or
feel.
Then, you move to a small town and everything suddenly becomes
bigger. High school years are interesting and you discover bigger horizons and
yet, you dream of something else.
Then, it is time to go to college and you move to a bigger
town. You feel confused and “close” gets a different meaning. “Close” now means
5 km away, whereas “close” used to mean a couple of meters away.
It is crazy and huge and it takes so much time and energy to
get used to it. Oh, the frustration! You don’t get why people would say “it is
close by ” to something that requires walking for 5 km!!!!!!!
Eventually you become one of them and you confuse the new
faces in town. After a couple of years, you get to know it and it shrinks. The big
city becomes too small for you.
Then, you take a huge leap into unknown and you meet Africa!
Any big city in Europe would surrender to a city in Africa in terms of “close”!
“Close” now means 30km away on a freeway. It is just 15 min drive! Close by!
And when your first African experience is Lagos, where a city has the
population of your whole home country, believe me, “close” gets a totally different meaning!
So now, you live in one of the big cities of Africa for
quite some time. And you take a smoke break and go outside, under a tree…you
look at it and you remember how it felt when you were in the village- the tree
seemed majestic and huge compared to you. And you felt crushed and small and
lost in the greatness of nature!!??
And now, you look at it and you feel taller. The tree and you
have almost the same height. And you look down to the grass and the Earth seems
like a tennis ball. Everything feels close and reachable.
The whole Planet Earth has shrunk and you are feeling
taller!
Do travel! It is an awesome feeling to feel taller! (except if you
are 2.15m tall and you hate the feeling!)
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