To those we meet along the way

by Marilena Juettemeier (Germany)

I didn't expect to find Australia

Life is funny this way isn’t it? While you are running around looking for something you might find something that you didn’t expect to find and looked for in the first place. I have seen the magnificence of the Niagara Falls smashing down tons of water, dived among the colourful corals of the Great Barrier Reef, embraced the sun at the Copacabana, and celebrated New Year’s in front of the Eiffel Tower, yet I think the most beautiful and memorable thing about travelling is the people we meet along the way. Those encounters with humans we never even imagined crossing path with that change our life to the core. It is the short-lived encounters like meeting a cute grandma in the last house at the end of the fields in Denmark when I am incredibly lost, that doesn’t understand my broken Danish and yet drives me to where I need to go. It is the nice couple next to you on the plane that offers you a couch to sleep on if you ever visit Hobart, even though they only know you for two hours. It is the family that made sure that I got to the railway station in the middle of the night when they cancelled all trains and I was alone at a playground debating where I would be able to sleep. However, it is not only the short-lived encounters but also the long-lived ones with people that meet you somewhere along the way and started walking beside you. It is flying home to be the bridesmaid of your friend’s wedding even though you haven’t lived in the same country for six years. It is sitting in the audience for your best friends from Australia, cheering when they receive their diplomas because you know how much they sacrificed to get to this point. It is surprise visiting your brother in the US for his eighteen’s birthday. It is seeing the sunset at Santa Monica Pier with friends that became family. It is laughing with your family for your granddads 90th. I believe that life is a consumption of small seemingly meaningless moments that become your story, but every story has its ups and downs like a rollercoaster ride. It is not only the happiness you shared with people that impact you when you travel, but also the sadness and difficulties. I sometimes believe that the challenging situations that shake you to the core might bind you even stronger. It is not being able to keep it together when you get a phone call from home that something awful happened and having people give you a forever hug and promise to stay beside you no matter what. It is smashing your ribs in your first ever rugby game and having your friends help you for a week to climb up your bunk bed because you can’t manage by yourself. It is having your friend step in front of you at the bar and tell someone to leave you alone that invades your space. It is the note from your best friend on the kitchen counter after a night you celebrated too much that tells you he got you chicken nuggets and chips and left them in the fridge because he was worried. It is your roomies sitting with you patiently when you explain your constantly overthinking brain to them. I will have lived across three continents and seven countries at the end of this semester and people ask me which my favourite place or country is and in all honesty I can’t really tell because I loved those places cause of the memories I have made there with people I cherish. Imagine going to your hometown and it is just another place on a map to most people but to you it is your childhood, your family, and the start of your story. I learned that I might never be completely at home again because a part of me will always be somewhere else with the people I love in different places but I believe that that makes life so magnificent because we are practically all home everywhere.