Liz: "it's a small world"

It’s a Small World

Traveling has taught me many different lessons but if there is one lesson that it continuously teaches me is that the world is much smaller than you think. My favorite thing to do is to go where I have never been, do something I’ve never done, and somehow everywhere I’ve been I’ve met someone who is somehow connected to someone else I know and personally, I think that’s beautiful. Across different countries, languages, ethnicities, and continents I have met people that are connected to other people I know and I think that is the best way to learn.

I enjoy learning from people, and yes that is not the most credible way to learn but what use is it to you if you know all the facts but not the reality? I don’t think I realized this until today when I walked off the train in Muizenburg and saw somebody with a UCONN shirt. Instantly I thought who’s here? – Thinking it was a guy from my group. And I look up and the guy wearing the shirt is not from our group. The shock was uncanny so I went up to him and went “Are you from UCONN?”

It turns out that he had spent last semester at UCONN studying abroad and was from Lund, Sweden…where my friend, Daniel, who I had met while studying in Auckland, New Zealand was from…who had friends that studied at UCONN Spring 2012…who knew Patrik….who I met on the Muizenburg Platform in Cape Town, South Africa. BAM!

We spent the day on a beach with two guys we had just met and talked to them about their lives. Asking people their story has become a hobby of mine and I feel so comfortable doing it. This is not something that I have always been comfortable with and I’m trying to figure out why here? Why Cape Town? Is it because I am thinking differently and being more open? Have I unlocked some other piece to the self-esteem puzzle? Are the people more open? Have I just learned how to listen? What is it that has made me so confident and comfortable asking random people about their lives?

I think it’s a combination of everything, but one thing I do know is that I hope it sticks around over the next few months here and translates back to life in the states and wherever else my travel may take me.

‘Til next time, peace out broskis.