Workings of an idle mind.

Have you ever let your idle mind take control and show you your inner desires and feelings? Well, I used to do that a lot when I was younger and didn’t have to worry about accumulating money for my dowry.

Instead I filled my mind with random facts that I learned on National Geographic, in preparation to live in Africa, Amazon and Antarctica (A-fetish, much?).

I wanted to become an Adventurer.

I imagined raising a tiger cub and being BFFs with it.
I imagined driving around in an open-air jeep, my hair flying in the breeze, and my skin glistening in the African sun.
I imagined occasionally stopping, turning the engineoff, and waiting as a tusker crossed the dirty road ahead of me.
I imagined spending the evenings sitting on the ground, watching the sun go down.
I imagined to see a few acacia trees scattered against the backdrop of a beautiful sunset with large herds of zebra spread out across the horizon.
I imagined at night, I would watch the flames of a fire dance to the beautiful rhythms that filled the air, the low rumbles of an elephant, the rustling of leaves, and the call of a lost cub for its mother.

I didn’t want to be carried away by the swift currents of life – go to college, get a job, get married, make lots of money, have children, send them to school..grow old and hate life. I wanted to experience life as I thought it should be. I wanted to be different, to not have to talk, or dress, or act the same as everyone else. I thought, “look at zebras, I mean all they really have going for them are black and white stripes and yet there is not one that has the same pattern as another“. I decided that I would take my black and white stripes, as it were, and come up with something new.

– I wanted to escape the boring branding of normalcy and have the freedom to just be, instead of inventing some form of myself that I thought was expected.
– I wanted to do something exciting, experience things others would never dream of, live the way I wanted to…growing old yet content through it all.
-I wanted to go to every country in the world.
-Raid a pyramid.
-Become a marine biologist inspite of my sea sickness.
-Befriend a bear.
-Survive a tsunami.
-I wanted to live inside an igloo with a pet penguin. 6 months day. 6 months night.
-I wanted to see for myself whether Californian Redwoods are 60-ft tall.

Here I am. Twenty four. And I couldn’t be farther from watching a beautiful sunset behind icebergs. I never did get to raise a tiger cub or stop my jeep for an elephant to pass by. I have never seen/touched snow. I haven’t traveled much either.

A few years ago, I learned something new about zebras – although each one has a unique pattern, its stripes cause it to blend in with others’, so that when a predator comes, it cannot make out individual animals. I realized that in a similar way people, who don’t want to be normal, end up blending in anyway because they become similar to all those who want to be different.

Maybe I’m different or maybe I’m just the same as everyone, I don’t know. All that I know is zebras are way too cute yo!

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