Sitting at the airport café, I watch the sun bathe the small runway of the Flamingo airport in Bonaire. I drink the warm stale coffee while cold air conditioning hums in the background. A few small planes land, the airport fire department drives up and down the runway, but the day is still quiet. Three hours to kill before my flight back to Curacao and as I rub the sleep from my eyes I realize two things. One, since the end of 2006, I have not lived in one place for more than 10 months and two, I see seem to keep running into good people everywhere.
Traveling into a new city, whether for a night or a few months, I’ve found that when given the chance to sit down with people and talk in English, Dutch, Spanish, or a language I can’t understand, we all have the same hopes for our families, dreams of potential we’d like to realize, and respect along with genuine curiosity for those we meet along the path we travel.
Through the pursuit of travel, adventure, employment, and affordable education, my path has carried me throughout the western hemisphere and across the Atlantic. From Canada to Peru, the States to Amsterdam, South Africa to Egypt and many a place in between, it has been a bitter-sweet experience. To meet so many unique and interesting people with such powerful spirits I feel blessed, and to continue the journey towards the unknown leaving new friends to an uncertain future, I feel cursed.
I imagine if I were to continue this adventure indefinitely, the same experience would carry me towards infinitely. It makes me smile to realize the world is full of great people I will never get the chance to get to know and as the world becomes more globalized and connected, I believe others are realizing this truth to an equal extent. It will become increasingly difficult for governments and people in power to polarize a populous into “us and them” for we are all us and we are all them. To pin fear and anger into cause and action will increasingly be undermined by doubt, understanding, and sympathy. Maybe it is idealistic to think violence will wither with time, but I see no counter argument as to why one can’t be an idealist in regards to this. Someone calling themselves a realist may scoff, but peace is a very real idea, realized over most of the world at this very moment. I see no reason why I as a realist, can’t be equally an idealist.
The world is getting smaller and if we listen to the logic in our head of those we’ve met and will meet along our way, it will tell the same story; people are inherently good. We should listen to that voice more closely. As I prepare to move again and get ready to leave Curacao on Tuesday to head back states side to pursue work once more on an ambulance, I look forward to the continual winding road and the direction it takes.
