When I left New Zealand for the trip of a life time, I thought I knew who I was, oh how I was wrong! 10 weeks in foreign countries teaches you a thing or two about who you are and also open your eyes on the life you’ve been living. Those 10 weeks were the most amazing, unbelievable, dreamlike weeks of my life! Now I’m home the, holiday blues have occurred and I find myself thinking about those days, that feel like a lifetime ago, and how much I grew! I wish I could give a couple of weeks to everyone so they too can explore the world, learn about how other people live, along with their day to day struggles! That kind of experience opens ones eyes, I can honestly tell you that! So I thought I’d share a couple of things I learnt and/or changed in the fast 10 weeks that was our dream holiday!

1. I was the biggest pushover.. Or though this could be a good thing, It was one of my biggest weaknesses. I put myself second when people wanted something far two often. Now if your thinking hey that’s not all bad, think again. Their are people in my life who took advantage of this, and that’s my fault for letting them but I’ve learnt sometimes I need my time, and if someone needs me and it’s serious I’ll drop what I’m doing for them, but not the way I use too! I now stand up for myself!

2. I took a lot in my life for granted.. I’m not sure what caused this, but now I’m home… I have an extreme appreciation for what I have, and the life I live, this is something I don’t exactly know how to explain but I think being away from my friends, family and in a completely new environment just caused me to miss home and then once I got back I realised how lucky I am.. Does that make any sense? I hope it does..

3. I was so oblivious to the world around me.. I don’t know if its just me, but now I feel like I had lived in a bubble, completely naive to the rest of the world. I wasn’t even in a crazy war part of the world yet I realised how crazy lucky NZ is… Anyone from New Zealand realised other than water animals, we don’t necessarily have animals that can kill us, no snakes, bears or lions? Something that was pointed out, and asked that got me thinking.

4. I became adventurous.. Now I’m not the most adventurous person in the world actually I am not a fan of trying new things at all (I know what your thinking, yes I am surprised I even got on the plane). This trip pushed me to the limits and made me face some serious fears. If someone asked me before we left if I’d, introduce myself infront of a bus load of stranges, jump of a boat into the sea, wear a bikini eat snails and ride a camel, I’d think you were crazy, but the common saying ‘when in Rome’ came up a lot. I hated swimming in deep sea water, but because everyone else does it, you don’t want to miss out (I have serious fear of missing out), my the end, I never wanted to get out! A complete change!

5. Don’t stress the small stuff.. This was a big one for me, I am a big one for stressing, I stress over everything. If I’m even a little late I lose my cool! Sam and I both joked about this before we left, secretly Sam was worried but once in a strange new environment you learn things aren’t always going to go in your favour and you almost adapt! For instance our washing got ‘misplaced’ when we sent them to a laundry (I mean majority of our clothes, gone) believe it or not, I didn’t stress a bit, I realised they were only clothes and we can buy more or just smell for the next 4 weeks… Once again a complete turn around!

Travel can change a person, it pushes your limits and blows your mind! After you realise you see the world and your life in a different way. You want to remake all your dreams come true.. After all once home your traveling journey feels like a dream! Everyone should take the time to visit somewhere new and get out of their comfort zone! It’s life changing!

Thanks for reading