Fortune Favours the Brave – and the prepared!

    
I sit here with another expedition on the launching pad. I have a ticket purchased for London on the 19^th of this month. It has been four and half years since I left my last extended travel behind me. Things have changed... time has moulded me and refined my perspective for this trip.  Previously, I felt that I had just the past and the present fuelling my actions... my thought was that this allowed the future to unfold without expectations. This time, I’m incorporating a new aspect – a plan for the future.  Reality will not hold me back from taking as much as I can from my life. I’ve discovered in the last year that I have only one thing to fear; myself, and regret for not doing things that I think will make me happy.

       I believe steadfast that fortune does favour the brave. The result is not always what you want, but something is always to be gleamed from taking chances. I’ve been on both sides of the coin. As an example for the positive, I was offered 1000 pounds per week to tend a shop, and basically get well fed to do nothing, at the Royal Bank of Scotland through the night. I replied to the offer– “ a thousand in the hand – or are you going to tax that?” Final offer – 1250 per week – no tax! It was life changing. I ended up earning more than 10,000 Canadian dollars in a month. Adversely, I’ll never forget laying on my back in Kensington Gardens my backpack under my head, my visa maxed out, all accounts -Canadian and foreign - empty, and 3 pound 50 in my pocket staring up at the, ironically..., clear, blue London sky. I laid there for hours paralysed by the weight of reality. What I learned from those moments was that when you’re high in life you can exalt in it – literally soaking in the shimmering brilliance of being alive!  While in contrast, and even more importantly, when you are low – you have the chance and the necessity to learn.  Both moments inherently are positive.  

      Previously, I always felt the future would work itself out. I still do in some ways – but this time, I’m equipping myself differently. I don’t just want to be a leaf blowing in the wind allowing chance and the vaccinations of the moment to purely direct me. I need direction. I want to commit to an idea for my future. Without all three aspects – past, present, and future working together the result will be confusion and uncertainty. Right now I feel they’re coming together. That fusion is giving me confidence.  I’m optimistic and excited! Backing me is my past wealth of travels and adventures, the impending present and excitement of living in Europe again, and the future plan of graduate school.  I’ve never felt so ready for an expedition.