Why everyone should try leaving

I love airports. The atmosphere at airports is always a weird combination of sadness of goodbyes and excitement of something new. Often there is also a sensation of dreams come true. People come and go being totally unaware of the plans of the others but still you can see that every person at the airport has a story to tell. This time, while being at the airport of Valencia, I’m sad for needing to say goodbyes to the new friends I met during this week of holidays, and leaving lovely Valencia behind, but also excited to get back to home in Vigo and start enjoying my last weeks there before leaving the city with its people again and moving on in my life. I’d love to stay in Valencia but Vigo is waiting for me for one last time. Therefore, this post is dedicated to the ambivalent thoughts of leaving and moving on again instead of travels but, don’t worry, the story of the amazing Semana Santa in Valencia is to be posted soon, too.

The last moments of staying in a place that has provided you with lots of new experiences and amazing new friends is always a period of a lot of deep thoughts, overwhelming happiness of the experience as well as devastating despair of leaving all of it behind and taking a massive step to the unknown. The same process happens when moving from one place to another as well as when ending a great holiday even though the scale might be a bit different. Moreover, it doesn’t really matter if this happens in your home country or abroad but deep down you know that things are going to change soon and there won’t be turning back. During this period of saying goodbyes you start to remember all the small moments of laughter and silly faces, the feeling of absolute social cohesion with a friend you just met and the freedom of wildly throwing oneself into new things. You also start to pay attention again to the regular small things that make you happy like you’d never seem them before. Shortly put, you start to remember how to live.

Last week I wrote a bucket list for myself to complete before leaving from Vigo in three weeks. The list was short: 1) eating a hamburger and guacamole in my favorite restaurant there and 2) eating chili in the same restaurant. Well, of course I want to see all of my friends but that’s not something to tick out of the list so I didn’t write it down. However, after struggling to add stuff to the bucket list I realized that maybe it is the right time for me to head towards new experiences as painful as it is. All good things come to an end, they say. But only to enable the start of new experiences and to remind us what is important in life. Hopefully I will remember this feeling when being busy with my summer internship in Madrid and surprise myself with a cup of coffee on a terrace or a long evening walk just to have a moment to be grateful of how privileged I’ve been with having the possibility to do and see all of this.

It is sad that we so often are so busy hiding behind the duties of everyday life that we forget to see what is going on around us. After waking up, we hurry to work without having time to notice that the sun is shining or that our neighbor had ploughed our piece of yard too. Even if we noticed these little miracles of everyday life, we are too busy to be grateful and enjoy of them. After work we are too tired to socialize or do something we actually want to do. Laying down on the sofa and watching television is a lot easier. Life passes by running and we don’t often even realize that. What makes this so sad is that, according to many studies, people tend to regret later on rather those things they didn’t do than the ones they actually did. Therefore, I think that everyone should try leaving from one place to another no matter if it is a holiday or an actual moving as far as you need to leave something behind concretely not being sure if or when you’re coming back. I assure you that it will make you remember what the things you enjoy the most are and how you get the most out of your life. Once again, one more reason to travel!

For now, ciao Valencia and my new mates! Hopefully our paths cross again sooner or later.