NEW ZEALAND TRIP POST: Less is more

8/25

I have been gone for almost a week now and I’ve gotten a lot of emails from people asking things like how it is going and what I am doing.  I haven’t had a lot of time to respond but the truth is I’m not really sure how to.  Things have been amazing so far but more importantly they have been the good kind of unexpected.  I thought that on this adventure I would learn some new skills and try things I never imagined I would have but the real surprise for me is the people.  I’m on this trip with 20 other unique individuals each with their own distinctive traits and complex stories.  All of them are people I would have never met at any point in time during my everyday life.  I know those people back home emailing me want to hear some exciting story but for some reason I don’t think they will find the same kind of rush in the fact that I’m meeting new people as I am.

I’ve grown up in a small town.  Everyone knows you or your parents and more importantly, everyone knows your business.  You can run but you definitely can’t hide from your past and any mistakes you’ve ever made in your life.  When I came here, I thought maybe I could finally escape that person and be whoever I wanted to be, if only for a short time.  Today I realized I came half way around the world to finally find out that I am exactly who I want to be and that works.  For the first time, I feel like I don’t have to hide who I am, apologize for it, or excuse it.  I am completely comfortable with me.  I learned that over dinner. 

It had been another long day of hard work on the job site and I was really looking forward to a low key dinner at the hotel tonight.  Because I was working on something else, I got to dinner a little late tonight so my seating options were limited.  I finally found a seat at a table in the back of the room and sat down.  As I ate the Chinese food dinner that was ordered for us that night, I struck up a conversation with the gentleman next to me. 

Carlos is a 47 year old Mexican American who lives in LA.  I guess you could say he was about as completely opposite from me as you can get but I worked briefly with him the other day and I found him extremely interesting.  As I asked him about his life, he told me about his kids and his girlfriend back home.  He told me about his dogs, his job, and his house.  As he told me stories of his life, I started to realize that he was a very special person. 

He was such a simple man who had simple tastes and everything he needed in regards to his minimal materialistic lifestyle he had but he had an unquenchable thirst for human interaction.  You see, Carlos talked to everyone he met.  And by everyone, I mean every single person he came in contact with from the homeless person on the street that he met while he volunteered to the CEO of the company he worked for and so many more in between.  From each of these conversations, he learned from these people.  He took the knowledge they were willing to part with and used it in his own life. 

Personally, I found Carlos to be fascinating!  On the surface, the stories he told were nothing really spectacular but in a strange way they were.  I walked away tonight thinking that the chance to have met him was priceless.  In my normal life, I meet people all the time but I rarely remember them.  I will always remember Carlos.  I will remember that it doesn’t take a lot to be happy and that there is a whole world of people out there just waiting for you come up and strike up a conversation.  You might learn something or meet someone you wouldn’t have normally come in contact with.  All you have to do is be willing to listen to someone’s story.  I have to say that I LOVED listening to Carlos’ stories and I definitely think that this man made an impact on me.

Maybe no one will ever understand how amazing my interaction with these people is but if you want to know some of the important things that I’ve done, then getting to know someone like Carlos definitely falls into that category for me.  Just like he took wisdom from others, I learned from him.  I learned that happiness comes from liking who you are and the life that you have.  It doesn't have to be over the top or larger than life.  Sometimes less really is more and when you can be content with that, you can be happy.