Eight years ago, I met my first love his name was freedom. I was already gritting myself on cultured life of corporate world, the first 3 years was intense. I was most afraid of losing my job, even though I’m not earning as good as I was working. Everything came hastily, the stress, the questioning of how life is outside my career and even asking why not?
Why not give myself a break for a change, I started working right after college, I didn’t give myself the chance to prepare for what’s ahead of me because I was hoping to earn my own money and buy things I like or travel for a new start. Traveling alone, away from my parents peering eye, as they tend to watch me most of the time, I live in Philippines, still with my parents in an age of 30. This is embarrassing for a country that promotes liberty at such a young age, but as for me this is my parent’s right to hold me until I am not married. It is the just one of the reason why I have not tried travelling yet, aside from expenses.
Then came down the stress at work and my family issue, I just needed to get away for a while If I can’t come back sooner then I know it was the time I have been waiting to. My Mother permitted my decision to quit my job, I intended to reject her help because I want to do things my own. I planned things thoroughly, where I’m going and what I’m going to do when I get there.
My very first out of the country travel, away from anyone else I know, not the furthest country I could go but close to my heart as it is still in Asia, Singapore. For someone who has not been away from home it was an exhilarating experience. I was alone in a strange country that doesn’t speak my language, taste the food that I never thought existed, and I heave a long breath that feels like the first time.
I was scared on the first day that I needed to hear a familiar voice, but I shrugged the thought of calling back home because If there was any other reason I flew, it was to find my pace and independency. The next few days became an adventure, bringing my backpack with me, finding good places to stay that don’t cost much, eating foods; the challenge was to use the chopstick.
I was counting the days left for me to roam around; it felt heavy to leave such a wonderful place, where I finally found myself braving the city by foot, a place where I convince the new me to accept the fact that losing a father was not a thing I live by alone, and that my family is with me even if I was not a good help to them, financially.
The country, that even after this year I still remember basking in one of those solitude places smiling with a light heart for three weeks, the first plane ride and the first singlish was “How can lah”? when I asked how possible it was that I was there. And I still congratulate myself for the new found strength; brave.
Thank you for reading and commenting. Please enter the Inspiration Travel Writing competition and tell your story.