A moment of honesty

Awe, great day to relax and catch up on my posts, upload pictures, do laundry and rest up. This week has been filled with great excitement as well as frustration, difficulties and sadness. With travelling comes its ups and downs and I am definitely experiencing the roller coaster. I was anticipating these challenges and always look to grow from these moments in life, but when you are actually experiencing them they are not fun at all! Obviously that is why they are called challenges! But, I am grateful for these times just as much as I am for the fun times. Easier to say after the fact but one of my intentions for my trip is to seek personal growth so what better way to accomplish this than to test my reaction to stressful situations, force myself to go with the flow when plans fall through, practice patience and acceptance of second or third best options, etc.

So you must be thinking, what has she been going through!? Well, just to share a few things. My plans to visit Nepal fell through :( I accidently checked a wrong box on my India visa application which pretty much would leave me stuck in Nepal without being able to return back to India. Long story short, that can’t work out for me so with that simple mistake my travel plans are forced to change. So I felt super bummed at first and learned my way through being flexible. A great life lesson to experience that plans are never concrete. I understand I must not be attached to any plan because you never know what may come of it.

I have also experienced cockroaches in my last guesthouse and now just today found ants crawling throughout all of my dirty clothes. Ugh! Breath Elana, just another obstacle to practice not over reacting to. During difficult times like these I repeat in my head "This too shall pass." And it always does.

To add, I am constantly being bit by mosquitoes, had a bad reaction to the itch cream recommended here (which is just tiger balm – good thing to keep in mind as it really works to decrease the itch!) but guess now I know I am allergic to it :( and boy is it hot over here. Hot and humid!! People here sweat constantly. And I mean constantly! Makes me realize how PERFECT the weather is where I grew up in California. Really doesn’t get much better than that.

And last and most difficult to add is my sense of homesickness. Gosh, I have such an amazing group of friends and family. I really do miss you guys! Travelling alone in a far off country has its difficulties. I love having people around and I have such great people back at home that I wish could join me. Luckily there are so many great people to meet but they can’t compare to my connections back at home. Travelers are transient. We move from one place to the next quickly. So if I meet a great person to hang out with inevitably he/she will leave soon and we will part directions. Most of the time I feel so great to be here and then I have my moments where I miss you all so much. So that is one of my greatest challenges. But another one to learn and grow from.

So here is my moment of honesty. As with any great challenge in life comes obstacles and difficult times. Although non of them are fun to experience, this is life and I am grateful for the opportunity to grow from my experience with each of them. With that all said, I have also had many amazing, incredible, up lifting moments and experiences! The next few blog posts will tell you all about them!

**For those "worriers" out there reading this post - please let go of your worries for me! I CHOSE to do this! I knew all of these challenges were possibilities and I still would not have changed my travel plans for anything. I asked for these challenges in order to grow. I just wanted to share with all of you my true emotions. The ups, the downs, and the in betweens :)