Every time I made plans or saved enough money to make the trip back overseas; something would happen to change my plans and hold me back a bit longer. My car problems alone were responsible for much of the delay. Each time I managed to save enough money, my car would have an episode and break down. Ironically, it would cost me $1400-$1600 to repair the damages which is exactly how much a ticket to Palestine would cost me. After many car problems and trying and retrying to save; I was finally able to scrounge up enough money for a ticket. The success came in a very good time considering I had just graduated from VCU. For the first time in seven years; I was free to go without having to worry about classes or work to hold me back.
I just got back from my month long trip a couple of days ago. I can honestly say that it has been one of the best months of my life.
I spent one week in Jordan and three in Palestine.
During this time, I experienced holding a live jelly fish from the Red sea,
Climbing a mountain in the desert,
Seeing Petra; one of the seven wonders of the world,
Visiting the Israeli/ Palestinian separation wall,
Picking olives from an olive tree that my father planted by our house on my third birthday,
Watching a gorgeous sunset every single day,
Riding a camel on the beach,
Riding a speed boat,
Spending time with my many, many cousins,
and my awesome grandma!
Visiting my mother's old house,
Visiting Jerusalem, (a city I thought would be impossible to enter due to the many political issues in the region),
Seeing the most perfect garden on earth
and I even made it to the beach! (also a place nearly impossible to reach due to the conflict)
During this one month, I was lucky enough to be able to do things that people who live there for years are not fortunate enough to experience. I even felt a bit guilty and did not want to talk about it in front of my cousins who have been trying to go to Jerusalem and the beach for years without success. I decided to take my adventures and save them in my heart as I traveled back to the country where anything is possible.
I had not planned on doing and experiencing so many things.
I read 'The Secret' a few years back and I remember thinking it was so logical. That of course you had to envision everything you wanted to be in order for it to come true. What other way was there? In my imagination, I had been building a life for myself for years. When I was in fourth grade; it included me working as an astronaut and mostly living in outer space and on the moon. By seventh and eighth I wanted to be a news reporter so that everyone knew about all the hardships happening around the world, especially in my world; Palestine. Finally, When I moved to the United States, I realized that just because the world knew that something bad was happening somewhere; that did not mean that someone would always jump in to help. Reporting about something that is happening somewhere is one thing. But having the power to create and emotional piece that can unify and call for action is a whole other story. That is what attracted me to advertising.
One of the advertising professors at VCU always told us that we should have a plan for our lives. In his class we talked about creating a two year plan, a five year plan, and a ten year plan. We agreed that we would try to follow the plan but that if something unexpected happened, we were expected to 'course correct' and continue on no matter how that changes the plan.
I really liked the course correcting concept because it is essentially how life works. Think about it. When was the last time you planned something that went EXACTLY according to plan. There is almost always something that comes up that causes us to course correct. A flat tire, a traffic jam, a lost cell phone. Sometimes it's more dramatic things like a sudden death of a loved one or a big financial problem, or maybe even falling in love. There will always be something that causes us to stop and redraw our plans no matter how well we though we had them figured out. This is not always a bad thing. Sometimes the unexpected course correctors lead us to better plans than the ones we had come up with ourselves.
I was not planning on going to the beach in Palestine because I knew exactly how difficult it is to reach due to the political conflict there. But something deep inside of me had a calling for it. I knew that I REALLY wanted to go, and that I was going to try as hard as I could. Everyone told me that I would not be able to do it. The more they talked, the more of a challenge it became to me. A challenge I had to over come. I did it. The sensation of the waves washing up to my feet is something I could never explain well. So let me just say that I was happy. Happier than I had been years. I was happy that I accomplished something near and dear to my heart, but most importantly, I was happy because this was a course corrector that is sure to give me a boost of motivation, hope and ambition to achieve more of the things I want.
