Who are you?

This is a question I used to ask myself a lot.

Before I started travelling, I didn't really know my likes or dislikes, what kind of hobbies I liked, what career I wanted, what kind of people I wanted in my friends group or what my favourite drink is on a night out (this is a biggie). There is a lot of things I didn't know about myself, too many to write, these are just a small handful of common questions that people ask themselves. I know this because I hear people around me say the most common of all, "I haven't decided what I want to do for a career yet." So, I now know the answers to all my own questions but this isn't just because I've decided to leave my hometown and move about, meeting new people and trying different cultures, it's because I now know how much more there is to life than my little hometown of Belfast and the most incredible part is, how many people are experiencing the same journey you are on. I had to learn myself. I had to go for coffee alone, go to the beach alone, eat dinner alone, read a lot, step out of my comfort zone and try new things. It took time and patience but it was a long process that I recommend. Learn who you are. I left for Australia alone. I didn't know what my plans were, what kind of job I would get, I didn't even know any suburb in Sydney other than Bondi (embarrassing and bad I know) but I'm one of these people that won't watch the trailer of a movie because I think it spoils the movie itself and I've always been like that thankfully. The same applies with countries and cities. I personally think it's the best. Not setting myself expectations of how somewhere should look or what I should expect to see, means I never get let down and have always found EVERYWHERE I've been to so beautiful, rain or shine. All I knew is what hostel I would be staying in for my first 5 days being there. Daunting eh? Every country I've been to has taught me different things but the best by far was meeting my friend Matilda. A Swedish girl living in Bondi at the same time as me and I'm so grateful we started working in the same place, on the same day.

See, there are a lot of questions I have in my mind about people and the universe and what we are doing here and are we all given specific roles in life, almost like a purpose. I still have not gained answers, only understanding.

Matilda was me only in another person. We thought the same, had the same interests, ate the same food, liked partying *eye rolls* and loved meeting new people. Finally I had someone in my life and as my friend, who thought like me, had all these questions and wanted to not take life so seriously. You can only imagine how interesting our conversations got. We still remain close friends. My sister once asked me, "do you know the colour of your school floor?" I said no. By this point I had been in the same high school for 7 years, so I should have knew the colour of my school floor. She then said, "you've looked but you've not seen." Well, needless to say it stuck with me since the day she said it. Looking but not seeing. I then realised that I had done this quite a lot in my life and after leaving high school, I knew I had to start observing and seeing the things around me. I had to throw myself into everything head first. In turn i resat my A-Levels which was purely 2 tough years of determination and 100% concentration. I graduated with 3 A*'s, amongst fulfilling my travelling dream at the same time, on my weekends and bank holidays off college. Thankful of my sister making that comment, I decided to tour and sightsee every country and city I went to, remember every conversation I had with interesting, short term strangers, I even remember the cute coffee shops I went to whilst being abroad and what the smell of the morning coffee was like in each part of the world. I was present during it all and I continue to remain present. I've always been very grounded, deep rooted and sentimental and I found this out about myself during my love firstly for poetry then it merged with my love for travelling.