THE VALUE OF NOT SPEAKING

“When you lose yourself, you find the key to paradise” – Zac Brown Band

We spend so much of our lives making sure that we are heard that very seldom do we close our mouths and open our ears and truly hear what it is the people in our world are saying to us.  Even in daily banter about meaningless subjects, we are so focused on what we are going to say next that we hardly hear half of what the other person is saying.  It’s a hard talent to learn how to listen and listen well.

That is something that I am trying to work on while I am here.  We have so much down time, so much time to spend with other people.  And what these other people have to say is so fascinating that I hate the thought of it falling on deaf ears because I am so focused on me.  These people come from all over the world; Germany, France, Switzerland, Sweden and not only do they have stories from their lives that I want to hear, but lessons learned from those stories that are even more valuable.  We all came here to learn.  And while the initial plan was to learn about Africa from Africans I think I won the jackpot bonus in that living with all the other international students means I get to learn about the world from the world and what more could anyone ask for?

It is something that very few people get to do: travel so far abroad for so long and be so incredibly integrated into a society, that I can’t help but feel I am still taking this opportunity for granted even after a month.  Why sleep? Why go out and drink?  I can do that anywhere at any time.  I want to experience South Africa - all it has to offer and what it can bestow on me to take back later.

This makes school difficult because even though we have very little of it in comparison to the US, I don’t want to be learning about tourism – I want to be out living it; taking surfing trips to Coffee Bay, going shark cage diving in Cape Town, meeting new people and doing things I can only do here.  I keep telling myself not to worry that I still have 4 whole months here.  But it has already been a month and looking back, I don’t feel like I’ve done much of anything.  And that month felt like a week.  I don’t know how people who study abroad and are only gone for 90 days or do Semester at Sea feel like they had near enough time to truly feel as if they are part of a country and its culture and lifestyle.

There is just so much to do and I don’t feel like I have near enough time to give the country the attention and respect it deserves.