Finding Your Own Way

While reading blogs on travelling and in particular, solo women travellers, I realised that alot of the entries revolved around tips&advice or lists of top 10 mistakes/things to look out for/ etc. Much of it comes from a 'I've seen it, been there, done that' point of view that's been shaped by one or a collection of particular experience(s).

Similarly, when I dropped by the orientation camp for my course, the answers to the questions from my doe-eyed, bushy-tailed, fresh-faced juniors all came from the same position. We try so often to dish out advice, mistakenly thinking that there is always a set path or a formula to achieve a certain result. And inadvertently, we create an illusion of expectations for others (and ourselves) that might in fact be a stumbling stone. While hearing about past experiences can help to calibrate expectations of the future, the danger lies in expecting the same to take place for you. That never happens.

And so, while I don't deny that taking the cautionary advice of those who have gone before you can be infinitely useful, I realised that we've just got to figure out our own way. Shrugs. It'll be fuzziness with a touch of chaos thrown in, mixed with some surety that should eventually give rise to a degree of certainty that allows for the next step to be taken. We're made of tougher stuff; not knowing what the hell's going on is not gonna break us any time soon. Just gotta figure it out our own way.