Flashbacks and Dreams
Don’t blink, you’ll miss it. A mantra of living in the moment. I certainly tried to live in every minute of my trip to Morocco and Spain. However, almost five months after returning, living in the moment has distracted me from really reflecting. It feels like a dream. Did I really ride a camel? Did I really drink the best mint tea from tiny glasses? How is it that I could have just gone back to normal so easily?
I often don’t think about my experiences on a daily basis. However, I will be going about my day as normal and suddenly something will send me right back. Recently I walked into a small convenience store packed with boxes of merchandise in a disorganized manner. I was transported back to Rabat with its tiny store fronts where we bought water bottles on our first days there. Just last week I put on a hard hat to go on a construction site and was taken back to the NOOR solar power plant in Ouarzazate. A stray cat will bring me back to Marrakech where cats were constant companions in every part of the day.
When I do get the chance to reflect, I realize many things. I realize that people are the connection to everything. People are developed, people are shaped by their surroundings, people create the structures of society. I think about the people I met in Morocco as solid representations of what the country is and where they want to go. I realize that while the U.S. seems like a completely different place, we are all people and have much more in common then we think.
One of the main reasons my trip seems like a dream to me is the fact that it is extremely difficult to put the entire experience into words. Many times I will find that many people have little to no knowledge about where Morocco even is. This is a roadblock I often feel when trying to explain Sustainability as well. A deep knowledge of both subjects is often a challenge for me when trying to quickly explain something that I learned to someone with no background knowledge.
I think it is very important to be able to express our knowledge about places we’ve traveled, sustainability, or anything that the people around us find hard to understand. Experiencing another culture made me especially aware of the importance of sharing knowledge. Knowledge can often be the most valuable when shared person-to-person. So while it may be hard to solidify dreams into reality, it is worthwhile to share what you can.
So live in the moment, take it in, don’t blink, but most importantly: Don’t forget to reflect back often, even if it is just a dream or a flashback.