A Glass Half Full

by Mirna Zaher (United States of America)

I didn't expect to find Russia

Imagine this: It's cold, really cold, like the piercing into your bones kind of cold. Oh, and to make things worse, it's raining too. Not just raining, but pouring, a never-ending stream of water falling from the sky. And not a single person in your eight person group remembered to bring an umbrella. Not a single one. And then of course, as if it couldn't possibly get worse, it's dark, you are somewhat lost, and you are in a country where almost no one speaks English. Sounds awful doesn't it? Would you believe me if I said it wasn't? No, really, what if I told you that moment was by far my favorite memory from a two-week trip to Moscow that I took as part of a university funded grant in the summer of 2017. Because as awful as it was, each step I took in my Sopping wet shoes was a step that each member of my group had to take alongside me. Steps that eventually, one after the other, led us to the university we were staying in, one located in a quaint Muscovite suburb in the Vykhino district of the city. When we finally reached our destination, having braved the rain and the cold and the sheer hysteria of it all together, a sort of comradery had been formed among us. We had survived! The whole experience wasn't very life threatening but nevertheless we had survived, and we had done so together. Together. That was what made the ruined Shoes, soaking wet clothes, and the fact that were all probably going to get sick after walking for 20 minutes in the cold rain something worth writing about. Because we did it together. We spent the rest of that night sitting in the empty kitchen of an old dorm room on the campus grounds of Grint University, dorms that once belonged to Russian's elite sniper training academy for women during the second world war. The ghosts of the past, and all the possibility of the future mixing together on that cold rainy night in Moscow. A night full of stories and non-stop laughter where mere travel buddies, who were all virtually strangers at the time become lifelong friends. Friends that to this day are more like family than anything else. You see, the cold and the rain were awful, yes, I'll be the first to admit it, but the memories and the unexpected friendship that came out of it all, that is what made the whole experience worth it. Made the whole trip worth it. The small things are often the ones we overlook when traveling, but trust me when I say, they are often the best. And to this day I would trade just about anything to be back there, once again miserable, soaking wet, and lost on that cold rainy night in Moscow with those same amazing people. I would do this because in that moment I truly felt alive. And what more could anyone want out of life than to live. So my advice to anyone who cares to read it is to go, get out there, dance in the rain, laugh out loud, live because as cliché as it sounds you only live once, and there is so much more to this life, to this world, and it's waiting to be found. Hopefully not as cold and rainy, but that adventure, that hope, that friendship, that life, it's out there, you just need to go find it. And maybe, just maybe, forget to pack your umbrella. I mean, what's the worst that could happen?