Offerings

When you are traveling, it is a constant search for balance. Especially, when you are traveling on the cheap, you have to be ok with where you are sleeping, what you are eating, what you are able to do. It’s a constant challenge, but in the challenge is also the fun. There are a thousand victories every day. Ordering the right thing, scoring a cheap yet awesome place to sleep, finding a dripping apple tree. You have to surrender control, and sometimes you eat what you would otherwise never eat, you do things that you would otherwise never do, and you sometimes just close your eyes and fall asleep.

The thing I love the most about traveling however, is that you find that the world, somehow always manages to take care of you. Someone always offers you a place to sleep, a ride, a meal. It always surprises me how easy it comes to some people. It also makes me feel how selfish I truly am. I don’t know if it has to do with being American, but I have to sometimes remember to be nice. It doesn’t often come naturally to me. I find myself first, thinking of myself and all the crap I have to do, and then thinking, “oh, I should offer to do this for someone, that would be a nice thing to do.”

Throughout all my travels, I’m perpetually amazed at the generosity. For instance when I was in Fortaleza, Brazil in August, someone from Capoeira, who I had only talked with on the phone, came to get me at the airport, and he ended up giving me his room for two weeks while he slept with his two sons in their room.

Or, in San Diego, when the guy who showed us our sublet, ended up bringing over a book of DVD’s, a bike, and then allowed us to crash at his place for two weeks when our sublet ended.

Or, in Buenos Aires, where I’ve been for the last 6 weeks. I emailed this girl Silvina, who I met in passing in Brazil, that I was thinking about coming, and I set off for Argentina with just her address. When I showed up at her house, at 5 in the morning, she put me in a bed, and I stayed with her awesome, amazing family for a week. When I wanted to rent an apartment, she kept insisting that it was not a problem if I stayed for the entire month, and although I decided to rent an apartment in the center of town anyway, she called me practically every day, and has become an amazing friend.

I have a list of other stories such as this, and I’m sure there will be many more along the way.

The question I ask myself is, would I be this quick to befriend a stranger? And the uneasy response, is that it’s not second nature for me to be this way. Now, however, I see the necessity. It’s a hard thing to just cast yourself out there, without strings, unsecured. It felt so amazing that these people reached out, made offers, allowed me to be part of their family.

So, I need to remember to make my own offerings, to as many people I can. I owe the world a lot. I’ve been given a lot of love, and that makes me all the more ready to start giving it back.