Discovering the world, to discover my self.

by Thamarlie Joachin (Haiti)

A leap into the unknown Haiti

My first time on a plane. My first trip. A very long flight of twenty two hours with two layover. A young woman of 23 years old. Was I Excited? Yes! For Sure. With also this fear in the deep inside because, for the first time I will be left to myself, somewhere I don't know. It was my trip in the Middle East, to the United Arab Emirates, in Abu Dhabi precisely, an advocacy duty since I am a medical student. I am from Haiti, little island in the Caribbean and from a modest family, with no travel experiences, understand that I was even impressed by the airport and fascinated by the plane. Despite of this. I wasn't afraid. And for me this trip was the start of an huge adventure. I was going on a discovery except that the treasure I did not yet know what it was. I was apprehensive how it would be without really being able to imagine, despite my research. This disorientation that I felt when I was faced with a way of life that is unfamiliar to me. The change in the social environment, all this luxury or simply the lifestyle, the temperature, note that I live in a tropical country and the temperature is far exceeded that of my country. The way they dress . Reading about something and living it are two different things. Everything captivated me and led me to wonder about everything I had known so far, about my existence. This experience made me realize how little I knew. How to know could be very far from living and embracing a reality. She pushed me to surpass myself, to want to know more about myself, to discover myself. And to discover myself, know myself better, communicate with myself, become another, I understood that you have to try to guess what is hidden behind the world. To travel is to observe its soles and imagine that they will hold out. It is to invent another rhythm. That when I realize, that there is gonna be a lot of similar experience, pushing to take a step A leap in the unknown.