“Navigare necesse est, vivere non est necesse”

St. Augustine used to say that “Life is a book and those who don’t travel only read the first page.” Today, maybe I can say that he was quite right.

After so many years on the road,  I really  think there is nothing better in life to travel. By plane, by car, bus … with a book, a movie … a song … Traveling with thought, learning, or in real, opening-minds.

I’m glad to see that, currently travel has becoming more affordable than before, and catch a plane to Europe, Asia, Africa is not as unthinkable as before.

I am also glad when I see more and more people spending more on travel than anything else. We enjoy “Before”, with the planning, “During”, when we are living and discovering places and “After”, with memories and the stories to tell.

I love talking to friends about travel; we always have something to tell: we always have something to share. I remember when my brother and his girlfriend took a sabbatical year to do a backpacking trip in Asia. He sent us a weekly email telling the stories and adventures, and every time we read what he wrote, seemed like we were there with them.

On the other hand, I can also say that it had been 10 years when I took my sabbatical year. And I liked it so much that I haven’t found the way home. Or better: I just expanding it. I have lived in 4 different countries and the truth is that once you start you never stopped it again. I want to live even in a few more. And if possible I want to see the world.

After spending so much time away from home, my priorities have changed completely. I don’t have anymore certain fears, insecurities that many people can have. I don’t dream with a house, or a car of the year. Of course I look for stability and some comfort, but I found that this is more mental than we think.

And that insecurity that I used to have now is more a dry seed on my garden. I don’t spent no more time in the fears of the uncertain, because it is an irrelevant fear: the uncertain always comes. Nobody is really sure of what will happen. The security that people buy is more illusory than it seems. Nothing and no one guarantees what is going to happen tomorrow. Neither your money, nor your house, nor your car or your life insurance.

My first years out of Brazil taught me to face those fears and to live with less. Difficult thing inb a consumer country like Spain or Brazil, where every moment companies and people are encouraging you to buy or to spend. And the truth is, on the last years, what I bought (the bag, mobiles, etc) can’t be compared with the courses and the trips I did. I started saving to study and to travel. My basic needs have become other and I  began to open my mind to the world, in the opposite direction of many people around me.

And the truth is that I don’t remember about the pants, or the shoes or the bag that I bought. And also what I didn’t buy. But I still remembering the trips I  have done and the moments that I have  lived. Friends, family, Christmas  together; a trip to Mexico with my brother; Russia with my husband. I remember about the courses I’ve invested and what I learned from them. I remember 10 times on stories and novels I’ve read. And I cry, laugh, and entertain myself with those kinds of memories: they are the greatest proof that I am enjoying life 100%..

I don`t intent to write this as a moral lesson to anyone. In fact I need to hear my own voice to notice that I also unlearned certain concepts that instability taught me. And after living so long time in a country with a certain status quo, the truth is I need to travel again and see what I can learn and relearn again in this World.
After the fear, comes the World.

**”Navigare necesse est, vivere non est necesse” – Fernando Pessoa