Wafering brown leaves fall and crinkle across the cement. Citizens strut down the street wrapped in one layer more than they had on last week. The faces and bodies of all start to curl quietly inwards. Autumn, is upon us. Autumn: the season of new and begins; of Back-To-School commercials and fresh sets of smelly gel pens; the season to pull in from the summer and bite back into the grind. Since coming back from my SE Asian travels a little over a year ago, I've not been so active with my blogging self. Now that the autumn of 2017 has arrived, I'm finding it to be an opportune time to start again.
To take you through a quick look-back: the last 439 days have been filled with much personal simmering, brooding, and renewal. I experienced post-travel grief and near-depression upon arriving back to Vancouver's YVR Airport last year, on the 26th of June.
I had proceeded to stay in Vancouver for six months fulfilling my childhood dream to be a waitress; serving endless spin(ach) dips as an Earls Girl, and while also finding my crunchy feet again in the dance studio.
As the new year of 2017 came, I flew off to Berlin, Germany and threw myself into a month-long, 24/7 intensive course to become a certified teacher of English as a foreign language. I learned why people confuse the uses of "so" and "such" and consumed YouTube videos about grammar as midnight treats.
I stayed in Berlin until the end of March, determined to get a taste of what living in the vibrantly grimy and exciting city would be like. I grew heart strings for the city and its people, and absolutely indulged in the city's sense of ownership, independence, and its bold 'I will be who I be' vibe.
23rd of March, I reluctantly moved to London, England to embark on a two-year "holiday" working visa (thanks to my being young and Canadian). Started to write my dates as DD/MM/YY rather than MM/DD/YY. Added some waving intonations to my North American speech. Welcomed a daily life of tea, "reckon this," "reckon that," and an inflation in my already-existing love for scones. I'm still here.
All the while, I've pondered on life. As one often does.
I've been wondering about the idea of settling and fulfilling the desire to have a "home." About our habitual need to have a source of reliance, comfort, and security. How we refuse to accept that nothing is permanent; that everything will always change anyway. I've been thinking about how we can cancel out the need to need. How one could, to some degree, practice this through minimalism and a sense of nomadism. And as any typical human does, I've been wondering about identity, relationships to space, to friendships; about validation, sourcing feedback, and a general deconstruction of self and surroundings.
As I make an attempt to delve into such topics I hope to bring some of you readers along, and perhaps even generate some conversation. So hold on, brb, let me get writing.