Far from Home

A prompt from The Daily Post is:

Tell us about the furtherest distance you've travelled from home.

I have ambitions to travel and see the world but as I'm still a struggling student who's low on cash, I don't really have that luxury. However, I have taken advantage of opportunity when it came and that was in my first year of university when I joined a group of fellow students travelling to the rural zone to aid the local economy because crops and businesses had been devastated by floods earlier in the year.

We stayed in a small caravan park by the most beautiful lake I'd ever seen-- it was calm and quiet and the bunch of us just sat on the edge, nibbling on biscuits and making small talk about anything and everything that interested us. We talked about things from our courses and our interests to things like morals, ethics and religion. I remember we talked about religion a lot because we all had different faiths and it still strikes me to this day how about ten of us managed to talk through homosexuality, the Bible and hell without raising our voices or shooting down each other's beliefs. Civil conversation about such prickly topics was something I'd never experienced and I found it so relaxing to be able to chat and find out more about other people and their values.

I know for a fact that travelling enlightens me and makes me feel like I am truly living because of the new experiences that it offers me. I was so disappointed to return home, not that I didn't miss my family and all, but I loved the freedom that travelling and learning about rural life gave me.

This is the picture of me that I took while sitting on the side of that beautiful lake.

The good news is, I will definitely be travelling a lot more. In fact, I have plans to go to South Africa at the start of next year-- I joined a volunteer group who made a presentation at my university and in a few months time, I will be overseas (the absolute furtherest I will probably ever be from my family) and doing both conservation and humanitarian work for three amazing weeks.

South Africa has always been the dream-- just a few more months!