Passing through Delhi airport I met 3 young girls on their way to Thailand for the Kohpanyan full moon party…I realised it was exactly 10 years ago this summer when I travelled to Thailand with my 2 best mates!
It was my first time travelling and we traipsed our way around South East Asia…partying, getting sun burnt and lost, trekking, swimming in the sea, bathing in rivers and waterfalls and having all kinds of mad capped adventures!
Probably one of the best summers of my life! And now here I am 10 years on, off “travelling” again. Except this time I am travelling alone, and not for fun and games but to work as a doctor in a remote area of Nepal! Feeling just as nervous and excited as I did all those years ago but now for a totally different reason…
Back then it was about self discovery, determining who I was…who would I be once I stripped away my normal world with all its preconceptions…reflecting on my life thus far and trying to make sense of it through a hedonistic voyage of personal exploration.
Now I think it is still a journey of self discovery… But this time it is about testing what I have learned about myself and the world in the last 10 years…finally putting it all into practice! Will I succeed as a doctor in an international, resource poor setting? Can I be the person I have sought to become since that first journey?
Naive wisdom….insecure confidence…ageing youth…
Watch this space!