A wise man once told me that most things in life are replaceable, but time is not one of them. This little tidbit of “daddy advice” has been resounding in my head repeatedly for some time now, practically in sync with the beat of my heart. So what did I do to fulfill these frustrated feelings towards my seemingly stagnant New York life? I decided to move just about as far away as I could for six months. And that, in a nutshell, is how I landed in New Zealand.
I’ve been here for three weeks now and thinking about that fact alone makes me all the more grateful that I decided to take this opportunity. Time flies and if you don’t take advantage of it, it will take advantage of you. So in case you were to ask my advice on the matter, and maybe this is just simply because it’s been ingrained in me by both of my parents, I would tell you time and time again to take advantage of any and every adventure. No doubt about it.
The past 22 days have already provided me with countless stories about how I’ve been able to make the most of my time here. Aside from the last week (which I’ve been using to settle into my new flat, navigate my way around the city, and get caught up to speed with the drinking culture that overwhelmingly defines Dunedin), I’ve been on the move. Just the way I like it. I’ve been lucky enough to experience some beautiful, remote beaches up north in the Bay of Islands, the faster-paced energy of Wellington’s artsy city center, and New Zealand’s best one-day hike, The Tongariro Alpine Crossing (the scene of Mt. Doom for all of you Lord of the Rings fans out there). This probably goes without saying, but I’m a pretty happy camper, or rather I’m a pretty happy tramper (easy there, a tramp is the kiwi equivalent to a hike). I’m thrilled enough to be in a new place, but to be able to live in essentially the outdoor Mecca of the world, is a dream come true.
Don’t get me wrong, seizing the day and taking advantage of opportunities is not exclusively related to uprooting oneself, moving to another country, and taking part in world-class outdoor adventures. I’ve been making sure to reap the benefits of everything New Zealand has to offer. Mainly, its incredible selection of lollies, pineapple lumps in particular. Don’t worry Mom and Kim, I may not have much room left in my suitcase to pack goodies for the way home, but you can rest assured that whatever nooks and crannies I have left in my luggage will be filled with these amazing charleston-chew-like treats that we’re going to put in the fridge and eat while watching the Bachelor. Talk about the best of both worlds colliding. Additionally, I’ve been giving the lingo here my best ‘go.’ That’s right, my friends are now my ‘mates,’ the garbage is nothing but ‘rubbish,’ and cool or sweet is happily being replaced in my vocabulary by ‘sweet as.’ Consider yourselves warned and feel free to jump on the kiwi train.
Although I was convinced that it wouldn’t happen in a fellow English-speaking country, yesterday was the first day I experienced feeling like a token foreign exchange student. Until this past week at school, my time in New Zealand has felt like a mini vacation: site-seeing, beach lounging, living out of a suitcase, etc. Feelings changed yesterday as I stood in line for course approval (an extremely chaotic process where you need a professor to sign off on each course you’ve registered for in a large room with hundreds of other people in your major). Standing in line, I was surrounded by heaps of friends getting reacquainted after summer vacation, decorating their conversations with tons of unfamiliar words and phrases that sounded fun but held no significant meaning to me or my life. Almost immediately and very definitely, I became the outsider. Starting in that hot, smelly room, I was suddenly witnessing my surroundings from a completely different perspective.
I’m not just a tourist anymore. This is my home and school for the time being. And even if I were a tourist, there’s so much importance in respecting the place you’re visiting and the people that live there. Don’t be afraid to mold to a new way of life. This goes for anyone, not just people in their travels. Change is good, normal, necessary, revealing, and ultimately unavoidable. And for people on some sort of journey like myself (both literally and figuratively), even if you don’t always agree with certain philosophies toward life in the place you’re visiting, at least take the time to learn about it and gain an understanding of the culture. Because isn’t that one of the main purposes of travel anyway?
A friend I met a couple weeks ago left me with this thought and I think it’s worth leaving you with…
Often times when we go away, whether it be for a day or for years, we wonder what is going on back home; we wonder ‘what’s new.’ What we usually find, however, is that after our travels take us to places both near or far away, when we return, it is not home that has changed, but us. We’re ‘what’s new.’ I don’t believe that anybody can force someone else to change. Places, however, have a certain, unique power over us. I like to think that all the places I’ve experienced have left their impression on me in the most positive way. This fact, and possibly this fact alone, is why I’m in love with traveling. There’s so much more to being in a new place than simply seeing its sites. Whether we realize it or not, we’re gradually absorbing more than just the visual side of our surroundings. For whatever reason, we as humans either refuse to/are incapable of change when another person asks us to do it. But when it comes to a new place, we are much more capable of welcoming the usual challenge of change with open arms. Being someone who very much struggles with change in my normal everyday life, I can already feel this process of change beginning and it should not only be scaring me but I should be trying to resist it at all costs. But this time I feel no need. And to think it all started yesterday, practically on its own, while I was just standing in line.
