Hey you!
A couple of days ago I came by this quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: “Do one thing every day that scares you.” She was the spouse of Sir Franklin and has the longest First Lady mandate of the U.S. history. As you might know, it made my brain rumbles. I started to ask myself: Do I face fear even once a week? What sorts of fear? What is fear at the end of the day?
The answer that I came with is not a massive yes but goes likes this:
Since I left my cozy uber-well organized and quite full of so many different things Belgian life, I have changed. Travelling does that to you. You do different things, meet different people and encounter such a deep variety of point of views that it does reshape yours everyday.
Here you are with the changes I witnessed:
- I use to hate cheese, the smell, the taste; especially the ones that my friend Nicolas would rub his finger in, in order to try to stick them under my nose while we were kids. Yeah the one that could kill you in one breathe. Well guess what? While I was in Hossegor with my friend Rico we ate cheese every morning for breakfast and I loved it.
- I use to think that driving a motorbike wasn’t for me, that I was no good for it, you know that sort of bad mantra lying in
the back of your head. Tom Engels taught me once (like 10 years ago). Meanwhile it always has been a dream of mine to have an old-time custom motorbike such as the one you at Deus in Canggu. The week of my birthday my friend Marco came to me saying: “Dude there is this motorbike that looks perfect for you on the Buy and Sell Bali group”. Yes I bought it and trained myself riding it in my street and now I drive it everyday.
- Getting fired was one of my biggest fears. I have to admit 5 months later that it is probably one of the biggest gift life brought me lately. To be fully honest I felt most of the time like a Lion in a cage in my old job. It was more and more demanding on me to deal with the bureaucracy, the inertia that a big corporate impose and the political games… When I started this journey there was a question that really bugged me: “What do you do?” Now I’m happy to say I don’t give a fuck anymore. Do I have an answer to it? Most def not! But I have several plans and I’m confident some of them will pull true. When I doubt that the voice of BAZ LUHRMANN in his song “Everybody is free to wear sunscreen” comes to mind:
“Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.” Anyway listen to that song it is worth it.
So back to that quote about fear, I guess I’m not yet as strong as Eleanor was but I see life differently dough. I don’t think I need a “job” in the conventional way we tend to see it. Been fucking there done fucking that! We as Europeans tend to think that our big corporate job should be our only source of money. Guess what? We are drastically wrong. Because if this source vanished we are screwed. I know now that I will built different projects that will provide for my life. One of my friends made fun of me the other day, claiming that I was seeing opportunities everywhere. I hope this will remain for life…
So I guess you are wondering why I decided to choose that picture for a header. Well 2 weeks ago I was at the beach with my board under the arm about to enter the water. The waves were big, when I say big the one you see in the picture doesn’t do justice to the set. So I was there asking myself can I handle it. A guy was surfing one of those beast and you could easily have put another guy standing on his shoulders they wouldn’t have reached the top of the wave. I was about to bail.
To say that I was scared was an understatement, I was about to transform in a she-male. But a small voice in my head was like: “Tony Bagous my men you can do it don’t be a sissy”. Yeah that voici in my head tends to make fun of me sometimes. Anyhow, I was like fuck it lets go. Medewi is an easy wave anyway. I manage to use a lull time to reach the peak. I sat there in the water for a good 20 minutes watching the other surfers having a blast riding those truck size waves. Then one came in, I looked her in the eye and started paddling. The drop was intense and the rest well you might have seen on fbook.
So yeah! All together, I am happier man. I accomplished one dream to reallocate myself to Bali and to be able to surf everyday but there is yet a lot to be build.
Stay tuned and see you in the world!
those around the beaches here.
Tbagous 