The scent of the sea breeze, the sound of the leaves crushing below my feet, the feeling of the wind brushing against me, the sensation of a free fall into unchartered internal territory, a year long free fall and I still remain falling. Falling with a great sense of excitement pumping through my veins, an adrenaline rush that allows me to have multiple thoughts run through my mind in between heart beats. For once in my short existence I am living a life with no aim, but with all the purpose the universe could dare to pack into one man.

The purpose remains to add more colours to my book of life, to continue manifesting the world that exists in the depths of my heart; a world of happiness, free of prejudice and judgment. The purpose also is to lead a life filled with meaning and not objects, a life filled with opportunities taken and not a life filled with regrets for succumbing to unjustified fears’ grip, a life worth reliving.

Fortune strikes with its invisible wand, at an illogical pace and with no defined target. I am happy that it had struck me and brought the multiple storytellers that I have been raised by and encountered, and remain to encounter, through my life. The storytellers who have been the flint to my fire of curiosity and inquisitiveness into the world beyond the one that directly surrounds me. I listened to the tales of journeys made by, both factual and fictional, characters before me and I stood and sunk in awe of those characters and their “unique” ability to be courageous and take wild and, seemingly, uncalculated risks. I am grateful for the ability that they have had in igniting my desire to explore and roam as far as my soul would take me.

“You get a strange feeling when you leave a place, like you’ll not only miss the people you love, but you miss the person you are at this time and place because you’ll never be this way ever again.” – Azar Nafasi

After a year of living the best gift that I have ever offered myself I’ve learnt to keep my heart constantly open in reception, of both the good experiences and the lessons; I have learnt to have an idea and not be shaken off my path once it feels like it has fallen apart; I have seen death, I have experienced life, I have expressed selflessness and selfishness, I have given and am in the process of learning how to receive.

Today I have grown enough to be able to see that I have grown and need I say, I am truly and fully proud of it.