One month from today I will begin to walk the entire length of New Zealand, and I don't even like walking. So why am I doing it?
I think the first reason is because I think I can. That is important to remember. I think I can do this, which is why this is the main reason I am going to try and do it. I do not care if other people think I can do it. I think that I can do it, so I am going to at least try and so what I think I can do. Im crazy. Not stupid.
The next reason is I think it will be good for me. I think it will be good for me physically (humans need to move occasionally or technically we are dead), but more importantly mentally.
My life has been a series of challenges, and as a result of me navigating my way through those challenges, often by stumbling towards the direction I can only now look back and see, I look back and realise I am a more complete me as a result. I am also a me that is more capable as a result of enduring those challenges. There is a saying that I like which goes something like "the struggle you're in today is developing the strength you need for tomorrow" and that is especially true in my life because i now look for my next challenge. This is simply that next challenge.
Challenges can be distracting too. When I arrived in Queenstown my plan was to set up Custom Vision Photography by going to the local market, it was whilst at that market I realised I needed to take a step back so I could take another step forward. I realised I needed a home and so I have spent the last two years creating what will be my home. I bought an old caravan and have converted that into something that soon I will not only be happy to live in, but something I can travel around New Zealand in to do what I want to do, which is to help others sharing the world I see through the lens of a camera, using my words to define the images i create.
It was whilst building my home that I realised I do not want to buy a house and live happily ever after in one place, doing the same thing, like most people, because I realised i am not. It was whilst building my home that i realised i one day might like a little bit of land somewhere with a view, somewhere with a little garden and maybe an outdoor bathtub heated by a fire, and a shed with a cool car in it. Somewhere that is mine, somewhere that when i want to be somewhere i can be, but I also realised I want to be able to move around and take my home with me, so I can share what i want to do with as many people as possible.
It was whilst building my home that i realised how much i loved sharing Aotearoa through my eyes, and that those who i were sharing it with then became a part of the story. It was whilst trying to do everything i could to make tomorrow better, not only for myself, but those around me, that i realised not everyone around me was as interested in helping the world around them as i was, because unfortunately many people around me are only interested in helping their own interests financially, and unfortunately i became a lil lost in a battle that was not mine to fight.
I will explain in more detail another day what actually happened, as it would not be fair to try and do so now accurately as this part of my story is still being written so to speak, but looking back now i see i needed to distract myself from what was happening so much that when I saw an old man trying to do what I am about to do on the front of a newspaper, and i got that same feeling i got when i saw that lady on tv run 60kms to celebrate her 60th birthday, i knew pretty much straight away that walking the length of New Zealand was my next step towards where i want to be, that this was my next challenge.
My final reason I think is the greatest reason of them all. I know from experience that by doing this, no matter what happens to me, I will inspire someone else to do something good, and as a result something good will happen, regardless of anything else that is a pretty good reason to do something.
...one month to go.
Till soon. Stay safe. Be you.
.K