My Journey
Introduction
Throughout my life, I walked so many miles, but I couldn’t discover the real sense of my life. During that period, I felt like a foreigner in my little world – my mind. One day I decided to walk so far away from home. I felt scared to go away from my family because I was living in a beautiful big bubble, a conservative one. I wanted to see the world with my own eyes, not through the TV, newspapers, or gossip neighborhood. I wanted to have my life, my own experiences, and not have to listen to other people telling me about their experiences. So, I got my backpack, and I walked away. Most of my friends were so happy with my decision, most of them were so scared to follow. A few of them disagreed with my idea. They called me so many things a “black sheep” was that I remembered. I smiled and said: guys are scared and afraid of life. So be it. In those days, the expectation was to follow the line or the rule without comments and questions. So, I broke that rule.
To take that decision implied so many adventures and risks for sure. I was so anxious to find those new adventures. I did not think about riks. I thought about obstacles as little stones on my path that I have to avoid. Taking some risks helped me to get to know myself very well. The most important thing was that I discovered that most of the stories that I heard from friends and neighbors – The so called “adults” – were way out of line, exaggerated and unreal fictions thoughts of their minds. The truth was that those people repeated or invented a mystic tale and added a happy ending. They always heard or read stories in the local newspapers and then told everyone that they were part of the story. As far as I know, those people were very successful in their lives. They never found a way to be successful in other countries.
I wondered why a guy from Europe, that I met on one of my trips and who fought in WWII and was living his retirement in South América, told me: Your Peruvian friends are always scared.
They are scared to be successful in a different society with people from other cultures, scared to make friends from other countries. That is not good for life. At that moment, I thought to jump up in my mind was, If I wanted to continue with my journey, then my first rule, and the most important one, the barrier to overcome, has to be: The Cultural Differences. In others to integrate me, myself, in a new way to see and live a life.
In every little town where I walked, I tried to understand the people, their culture, and get new experiences. One word or expression in a language can have many different meanings in different areas. It only took seconds for me to understand those meanings. Yes!!!!!!!! Only a few seconds. That was amazing. I could communicate with others without problems.
I discovered that cultural differences were an obstacle at first. No matter country, race, language, or culture, I deeply understood the significance of being aware of it.
Since that rewarding trip, now I can see that in every single little town, all over the world, people from different cultures are in my life as never before.
To live with people from diverse cultures is so complicated for so many people, both immigrants and locals are scared for many reasons. It is time to understand that we are a multicultural planet. People from different backgrounds walk throughout your path all the time.
I have discovered through my -super uber awesome- journey that cultural integration is key( It is a must in most of the cases) when I live in a new country. Meaning to live with tolerance, respecting our cultural differences, live with a positive attitude to solve our differences with diplomacy, live like a big family avoiding negative, and extreme positions, live as better human beings. It is not an easy task. But it is something worth doing.
