One of the strangest (and sometimes dangerous) things that happens to me when I travel is that, as soon as I overcome the fear of releasing the comforts of home and board the plane, I magically lose all inhibitions. On my first volunteer trip, to East Africa in 2007, I was newly engaged to be married and about to go to Uganda and Tanzania – alone – for nearly three months. It was not easy at all, and trust me, I’m no tougher than the next girl. In fact, I still remember very vividly saying goodbye to my now-husband Matt, at LAX, in tears as an unimaginable aura of anxiety consumed the both of us. If you had told me in that moment that four weeks later, I would step foot in the most volatile and war-torn part of the D.R. Congo, a region called North Kivu, to go see the endangered mountain gorillas at Virungas National Park, I would have frozen with disbelief. But being so far removed, living in southwestern Uganda, it didn’t seem like a big deal at the time. A week after my quick trip in and out of the DRC, the BBC ran a cover story on several gorillas that were killed by rebels in that very same national park. The killings had taken place the day after I left.
To get to Ayacucho, Peru, in the Central Andes, is a nine-hour nauseating bus ride from Lima that is absolutely not for the faint of heart. It can be done overnight, which is what most people do. I myself have made the trip six times now. But if you told me I had to get on a nine-hour windy bus from San Diego six times in two months, I would be on Expedia searching for flight alternatives faster than you could say ‘let go of comfort.’
These two stories illustrate what I treasure the most about living abroad. Something happens to my mind where I just let go of any premonitions or habits I was in, and roll with it. I think that’s when you see personal transformations start to happen. You really don’t have to go sky-diving or eat guinea pig. If you break your norms in any way, you are transforming the way in which you see things, sometimes without even being aware of it. And it’s an addiction to that learning which keeps me stepping on planes, pushing myself further, even as I’m scared senseless about taking the leap and letting go of home.
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