Red Slippers

Recently I have been reading through my blog and reflecting on how I have transformed and grown on my journey around the world. I am fast approaching my ninth month of straight travelling and country number 18. With that said there are still 6 more months to go and 18 more countries to see. In some ways, I don't think that long term travellers            recognize the self-changes that occur or how quickly these transformations happen. 

A few weeks ago I attempted to explain to some one back home what a 'normal' day of travelling can be like; the amount of people you meet, the sights you see, the stresses one encounters and how all of these mould you into a new human being.  I am a new person. Sometimes I ask myself if my friends will recognize the person I have become and if they will still want to call me friend.

When I left Canada my only true fear was not of leaving but of not returning. Now I have learnt and accepted that I will always return to my home but for how long remains unknown. This may sound crazy to some, but I am more afraid of going home and back to 'real life' than I am of bungee jumping of the Macau tower or travelling to a foreign country alone where no one speaks English. I have a gypsies heart, a King's dreams and an unwavering sense of independence. Or at least that's who I have become.

As I continue to walk my path through country after country, hostel after hostel, train after train, currency after currency and language after language, I find myself being influenced, changed, moved, transformed and moulded by every experience, every moment and every person. Is this why travellers constantly seek an open road and a new adventure? Without consciously being away of it do we crave the way the world transforms us and opens our eyes to that which is unseen? What is it that pulls us back to the world of backpacks, foreign lands and unknown languages? Will my desire to travel ever die or will it simply be something I must learn to control? And do I want to control it? My days have become so full of beauty and happiness. True happiness. Complete happiness. With nothing lacking and no desire for more. 

My life has become one that enriches the soul, causes the spirit to soar and encourages the mind to dream.  There are no limitations anymore and fear only exists in horror movies and childhood nightmares.  So this concept of returning to 'real life' is becoming more and more difficult to comprehend. How can a life so beautiful and a spirit so full of life go back to what it once knew? How can this type of spirit be controlled to fit back into the life it once belonged? More importantly why would one want to change a perfect life or contain a spirit so infectious it touches every soul it meets simply to return to what it once knew? 

As this journey unconsciously continues to transform my soul I find my mind slowly trying to play catch up. It begins to acknowledge and play with the thought that perhaps the life in which it once knew is no longer the one where it belongs. That my yellow brick road maybe doesn't end but merely continues to weave and circle around the world. That red slippers may exist but perhaps they don't fit my feet.