Where I don't know the words

Nicolaus Copernicus Monument, Warsaw, Poland

I can distinctly remember leaving the Warsaw Airport, four years ago. I had researched how to get to the city center by train. It was supposedly straightforward.

I then went to exit, following the signs with a picture of a train. The station was not adjacent, and I remember it feeling so far away, that I had been walking for a long time. It probably wasn’t too far, but along the way I had begun to question if I was going in the right direction. After all, I couldn’t read what the signs actually said.

I was a little nervous. The way I calmed myself down was to think to myself: “This is the last time you will be in a place where you don’t know what the signs say.” Little did I know then that I would later travel to several countries where I didn’t speak the language, and some that don’t write in the Latin alphabet, where I couldn’t even begin to decipher what they may have said. I never would have imagined that almost exactly four years later, I would be back in that exact same airport, on my way to another country where I didn’t speak the language.

When I arrived at the station there was a problem with the ticket machine, or I just couldn’t figure out how to operate it. I can’t remember that part as clearly. Some people saw me struggling, and kindly helped me buy a ticket from the newsstand. Likewise, when I boarded the train, and looked at the sign with the stops, there was not one that matched the name of the station I had written down on my paper. With the help of a few kind strangers, I was able to figure out where it was I had to disembark.

I am not sure what was going through my head then, so many lifetimes ago. Why I had imagined a future so limited, one where I would never again go to a place that was foreign to me. A life where things were simple, where I could always understand what was going on. Where I would not be challenged. Was I scared? Of new horizons? Of failing? Some days, most days, I still am. And yet I still book flights to places I’ve never been before. I pour my heart into words and share them with the world. I do this so that I may share the lessons these challenges have taught me, have given to me, truly as gifts. That no matter how nervous I may be, how unknown the future is, there is something on the other side. Almost always for the better, even if it does not seem like it at the time. For it brings me somewhere I could not have expected. Always, I grow. I learn. I think deeper. I feel more. I become stronger mentally. Physically too, carting my ever-expanding luggage city to city.

In no way do I mean to say that by staying in one place and having a secure life is not something to be sought after. But if there is something you really want, I believe that is the exact moment to set it as a challenge for yourself. Don’t let fear control your life. It doesn’t have to be jumping from a cliff or anything like that, although it could be. And I know more than I care to that it is easier said than done. But so much greater is the reward when you confront what scares you. Restore your faith in yourself. The challenges I have faced have taught me that I can persevere. That I will persevere. Knowing that, I have no reason to be afraid. I will learn along the way.

love,

greer