Moments where you remember why you travel - The easy road not taken

I'm the kind of person who struggles to find the balance between following passions and falling into the traps of ordinary life because it is what is 'expected'. Recently I was visiting friends whom I first met him high school and we were talking about where we thought each other would wind up in life. My friend, whom I love dearly, observed that he always thought I would graduate university and wind up in a high powered job that I hate. This comment was so revealing to me - that's exactly the struggle I've experienced for the last eight years since graduating high school. The fight between studying what I want to study and what I should study. Making the decision that is 'practical' rather than what inspires me. When when I first went backpacking, I tried to fit it into my life with timing which was 'logical' rather than simply allowing the spontaneous decision that it was to simply be. You might say that I am incredibly narcissistic and I don't know if I could disagree; but what the last few years of my life have taught me, is that I believe genuinely in finding your passion in life, I believe that we can all live a life where you do more than simply exist. And it is with this belief that I most recently decided that the job that I was in simply wasn't enough for me, and that I need to explore my passions.

Every so often, I lose sight of my philosophies and feel that pressure that 'society' puts upon you to conform - as high school classmates get married and have children, as the years tick on and I haven't even started paying off my university debt - and it's like there are moments, singular moments in time where everything clicks in and I remember why I have chosen to embark upon this life. I'd like to capture these moments as they occur, because I feel as though they are important in terms of my own journey, and I want to share them.

~

A couple of weeks ago, I had one of these moments. I went to see a movie. An innocent occurrence. I went to see The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. IMDB describes the film:

THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL follows a group of British retirees who decide to "outsource" their retirement to less expensive and seemingly exotic India. Enticed by advertisements for the newly restored Marigold Hotel and bolstered with visions of a life of leisure, they arrive to find the palace a shell of its former self. Though the new environment is less luxurious than imagined, they are forever transformed by their shared experiences, discovering that life and love can begin again when you let go of the past.

There was a lot in this film for me to love - the idea that even as I get older, I can travel halfway around the world and embrace a life that is 'different', the themes of embracing your passions and being true to yourself. Some of the critics have labelled the themes as being 'predictable' but for me they were poignant.

The plot which I enjoyed the most and which really spoke to me was that of Indian free thinking dreamer Sonny. His mother is pressuring him to take the traditional path - she wants him to move back to Delhi and live a practical life and marry into a wealthy family. All Sonny wants to do is live out his dream to make The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel into a success and to marry his beloved Sunaina. Sonny says something very poignant, something which resonated so deeply with me and my soul.

His mother tells him that if he follows the path she wants him to, then life will be 'easier.' He responds and tells her that life will be 'smaller.' It was this very response that left me somewhat overwhelmed with emotion and thought.

I often think about this - the concept of life being 'easy.' The job that I was most recently in wasn't exactly affording me an easy life, but as I wrestled with my newfound life decision, I contemplated, maybe I just need a job which has more work-life balance, less stress and a small pay rise - and I could've lived that easier life. Maybe I just need to focus on finding a boyfriend and getting married and living in a house with a white picket fence. However I don't want my life to be easy. I want it to be full. I want to see things, experience the world, find out who I am, where I belong. And this notion of easy equating to small was something that really struck me. Sonny wasn't a businessman, he didn't have the ration and the logic, but he had such genuine passion for his dream that I admired in the character and it is the precise kind of passion that I hope I can find within myself and apply to my life, wherever it is that my life takes me.