10 Feb 2016

A Mumbling in the Afternoon

Keeping in mind that you are one of the few people I can share foot-paces on the roads and pathways, from London's classy Piccadily until Jogjakarta's traditional Malioboro, I know that you wouldn't be amazed if I told you that yesterday I walked from Bundaran Hotel Indonesia to Dukuh Atas. I know Jakarta is not a fascinating place to spend our time in the sidewalk. But I do love padding along, and that afternoon I was yearning for the feeling we use to get when we go on foot.

That was weird, I know.

I also still remember the time you called me 'nerd' because I spent a whole night alone in Starbucks. I was in Birmingham, a city I know only a little about. Michael Buble's concert I attended ended far after the last train departed. I decided to wait for the very first train in the next morning in that coffee shop, having no sleep at all. I was all alone. I went to that concert by myself since I found no one to accompany me. I didn't know where to go but google maps helped me so.

You never ask me whether I am afraid to go somewhere alone. Maybe because you know that fear rarely appears on my mind, adventure is.

Writing this and recall how you response on my nerdiness, I finally understand why you looked like you were unworried when I sneaked away. Now I know why you only laughed when I told you I went alone to Sherwood Forest, far in the deep of Nottinghamshire, by bus, from a town I knew nothing before. I never told you that I almost got lost in that forest. Walking alone in the pathway when the sun was about to go down and the sky was super gloomy, I saw no one and decided to get back and took another route. I never told you, but if I did, I knew that you would say that I would be able to handle that.

I really appreciate it when you said you learned much about traveling from me, since I don't know  that throwing myself into adventures I never planned is a kind of dauntlessness or it is a stupidity.

It is true that sometimes you raise your eyebrows on my doings, like going alone to strange places or buying Radley sunglasses which price made us stumble. But you always believe that I will be alright, and that I make right decisions. Do you believe that one of my friend ever told me that I was better not to be too strong and independent? Still, I can't pretend that I am a typical ordinary girl who depend on other people, always going somewhere in group, not able to read map and slow to make decisions. Well, honestly, sometimes I want you to worry about me, yet it doesn't bother me if you don't.

To walk with you and get to know you moment by moment, journey by journey, is such an adventure itself. I know I will be alright for I am always be able to be my self whenever and wherever I am with you. Even though it means that this strong willed, stubborn, and curious girl does not need you as much as she needs herself. But, this, exactly, what makes you feel alright, doesn't this?



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