The Birth of Wander

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

My father was a traveler. He was born and raised in Pakistan, but he found his education and career abroad. From Abu-Dhabi to the UK to the Americas, dad would exaggerate and brag about traveling through 8 continents! [and yea...we're still looking for that last one.]

But unlike him, I wasn't a traveler. I wasn't curious. I never thought about getting lost in a foreign city. Probably because I didn't have the money or confidence to wander onto unknown lands. By trade, I'm an engineer. By nature, I analyze the fuck out of everything. A conservative mindset ensuring safeguards against uncertainty resulted in paralysis by analysis. The only time I would travel is when others planned and I followed.

But through a few recent experiences - as shared on previous posts - entering unfamiliar realms of experience proved to open fascinating doors of which I didn't even know existed. Simply stated, I started looking up at the sky more than down at my phone. Infinity became interesting.

Small but ride-able waves prior to presentation day

When I was asked to travel to Cocoa Beach, Florida for work - on a Saturday - my initial reaction was dread. I wasn't trying to spend my weekend preparing for and presenting before a State agency in hopes to gain a $1M grant for the municipality. But embracing the idea that I didn't know what I didn't know, I approached the project with intuition instead of anxiety. 

The presentation and project description was straight forward. The municipality wanted to rehabilitate a few seawalls, and there was a State agency, the Florida Inland Navigation District, that promoted such infrastructure projects by granting grants. Our job was to illustrate our efforts with a short presentation, answer a few questions from the Committee and smile. Luckily, I had the company of a colleague who had been through this process before and only needed me to serve as the technical lead of the project. [Thanks Judy!]
 

After delivering the presentation, I could have packed up and headed back home, but a past surf trip with the boys in Nicaragua had me itching to surf again. And since Cocoa Beach is one of Florida's better surf locations, I decided to reach out to a local surf instructor to revisit the sensation of the ocean energy beneath my feet. Unfortunately, by the time I was free to ride, the surf had flattened and was no longer ride-able.  Then that cliché of life being a journey, not a destination, surfaced. I felt excited to have just intended to surf. Sure, it would have been to dope to catch a few waves, but there was an absence of disappointment.    

And so, while my soul smiled, my stomach growled. An easy sandwich and accompanying celebratory beer was in order. Cheers to [not] surfing! I took a near by stairway to the Tiki Bar located just above where I had planned to hang-ten, and there I sat with a few laid back locals who seemed to be patiently waiting for tomorrow's possible waves. Conversation was light and the beers were cold. It's interesting how catching a buzz seems to be easier when the mind isn't resisting. After one beer, a few hours and a few pictures, I thanked my new friends for their vibes and cashed out.  I returned to my hotel, packed up, and headed home. 

On my drive back, I recall feeling reset. A trip was blissful for the first time.

So when I returned to Miami, I booked a seven-day solo trip to Panama City, Panama.