People like us
A few years ago, I received a message from my teenage self using futureme.org saying “By now, I hope you’ve traveled the world.” I was 25 when I received that message, and by then, I had not traveled the world.
Traveling the world seemed out of reach, expensive, and not something that I could ever do. But slowly something clicked, and I decided that travel is something I could do if I planned for it.
I started organizing my life so that I could live and work while traveling.
Fast forward to 2020. It’s an October afternoon in Delft, Netherlands where I’ve lived for 3 years. The leaves were turning shades of orange, the skies were clear, and the air was crisp. Cafe terraces were opened for the last few days of good weather. A lot of people were out, having coffee and pastries amongst traditional Dutch architecture and cobblestone streets.
Beside me, an older man started talking to my friend. In his young days, he was a horseback racer and now he did horseback falconry. He worked with birds of prey and went to Kazakhstan every year for falconry. His wife passed away and he frequents the cafe for social connections to keep away loneliness.
Connections like these are one of the reasons that I loved living in a town like Delft. Learning about different ways of living and hearing people’s stories. It’s amazing how much you could learn about a stranger through a conversation at a cafe or on the train.
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I never thought I would live internationally, or even set foot in Europe. I grew up in a low-income neighborhood where exposure to opportunities rarely existed.
Most of my family still have the mindset that there are certain things ‘people like us’ just don’t do.
Certain places ‘people like us’ shouldn’t go.
I’ve broken away from that mindset, and I love showing people the path to think bigger. 'People like us' can do things like this. I did it and I grew up on welfare in a poor neighborhood where it was normal to hear gunshots every week.
But I planned, researched, and persisted. There are so many roadblocks. Family and friends will try to discourage you. It took me years but I kept going. Because people like us can do things like travel the world. Don't let your mindset, your environment, and your community stop you from traveling.