Walking along a white empty beach in Zanzibar, I saw a
solitary white woman walking towards me. As she
approached, I stopped to face the sea thinking I should probably head back. My
body language must have hinted the same cause as she caught up with me, she
said “What stopped you from going on?”
A flow of possible answers clouded my brain in seconds.
Well, for starters I had been walking for quite a while only clad in a bikini
under the scorching sun. I was also having second thoughts of whether it was
safe to continue venturing on my own on what I thought was a deserted beach. I
can’t remember what I actually replied. But I do remember being tempted to
reply; why should I go on? I had just climbed Kilimanjaro after months of
training and set up a school in Arusha in the past three weeks – hadn’t I done
enough? Shouldn’t I just call it a day? No yet!
After Africa, I went back to the UK to quit my job and
backpack across East Asia then onto Australia for a year before spending a
couple of months trekking in New Zealand. Back in the UK and at 34, I became a fulltime
Uni student. Nothing seemed to stop me from going on, or even reversing back!
To this day every time I think I’d stop and stay, again the question pops; what’s stopping me from going on?
Yes, fear, loneliness, getting lost, etc. cloud my brain but
my heart and soul have a mind of their own; one which is stronger and drives me
to go on. Or couldn’t be destiny? Or, just a bit of both! For the past two and a half years, London was
home. And once again when I thought that’s it I’m staying, here I am, starting
another new chapter in my life; living in New York.
