Change is Upon Me - Reflecting and Coping

Without a choice I jump an ocean today. Well, half of an ocean. Thankfully I don’t leave Oceania quite yet, but I do leave Aotearoa, a gracious, open, and loving portion of Oceania (the Pacific). The values, work ethic, cultural openness and care here is without a doubt special. I will miss it. Mahalo to every single kiwi and Maori soul who made me feel welcomed, including the man at customs who just told me that I am “always welcomed back to New Zealand” after we had a wee chit chat! The niceness doesn’t stop!

So it’s fourth of July - happy independence day!!! But that’s here… on the left side of the date line. I land tomorrow morning when it’s actually the fourth for America. Celebrating my re-entrance to ‘Merica in true ‘big is better’ fashion. Woohhoo!

I have spent the past week and a half traveling the North Island after the semester finished. I was blessed to find a kindred soul this semester, Miles. This great friend has been my running mate, workout mate, exploring buddy, fellow adventurer and nature enthusiast. We travel well together because our eyes are open, meaning we are constantly admiring and mentioning everything around us. We’re both incredibly independent and capable people, so we don’t have to worry much about each other. Not to mention a diet of wheat bix, apples, carrots, peanut butter and curry couscous for nine days satisfies us both. In total we traveled more than 2,000 km (perhaps 3,000?) and loved every second of it.

Some highlights include freedom camping (stressful for us analytical over thinkers who don’t want to pay a $200 fine, but also exhilarating and fun!), teaching Joy how to drive a manual car, rainbows, beaches, runs (some in the sun and others in fierce thunder and lighting storm through a Kauri forest…whoops), a hot water beach where the ocean is ice cold but thermal activity makes the water under the sand hot so after digging a sand pool you have a hot tub (so cool!!!), waterfalls, waterfalls and some more waterfalls which I had no choice but to go under ;), a hike in Tongariro National Park and World Heritage Center (lead to wind burn blisters on our faces…), a whole trampoline park to ourselves on a rainy afternoon (plus midweek discount - yeehhaa), a visit to the most northern point of Aotearoa where spirits are said to depart from this world and where the Tasmanian Sea and Pacific Ocean meet, some sand dune running around at sunset time, and a whole lot of memories and stories.

Conflicted feelings permeate my thoughts. Memories of the past four months keep running through my mind. I am trying to recall as much as I can so that I do not let any moment go unforgotten. Most importantly, I think, is going to not revert to the old ways. I’ve grown and gained new perspectives that have enlightened me, I would be disappointed to take the easy path and fall into the old Joy in the same old life I lived a year ago. I don’t want to be just another abroad student crying about going home, but I’m a bit scared of the stagnate life which lacks adventure. At the same time however, I’m inspired to create adventure in that life. To change the old and create a new life in a familiar place.

I’d like to share this quote I stumbled upon half way through my abroad experience and it has come up in my mind multiple times since.

“People say, ‘You’ve changed,’ or something like that, well, I hope, for the sake of God that you have changed, because I don’t certainly want to be the same person all my life. I want to be growing. I want to be expanding. Because animate things change, inanimate things don’t. Dead things don’t change. And the heart should be alive, it should be changing, it should be moving. It should be growing. It’s knowledge should be expanding.” - Shaykh Yusuf

My life has been enriched in too many ways to mention. My eyes, heart and mind have opened and grown thanks to this experience and the friends I have been blessed to meet.

I’m about to board my plane and leave this country - for the first time. I hope theres some more Air New Zealand flights in the future! I’ll have to do a post of photos later because it takes a bit of time to pick and choice from all the amazing sites I got to see!

Stay tuned.

ADVENTURES AREN’T OVER :D

They’ve only just begun!