Twenty years from now
You will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do
Than by the ones you did do.
– Mark Twain
They say that your
inspiration is right in your face, all you have to do is reach out and grab it.
I was standing in
the front row, right by the stage near the speakers, alone. At that point I never been to a
concert outside of high school or for my college's homecoming; but yet here I
was, about to see one of my favorite artists. Not only that, I was going to meet
him backstage after it was all said and done, the amount of emotions that I was
feeling was crazy. Doing a meet and greet, let alone going to a concert alone, was one of the things I didn't really have in my plans for life. When I thought of concerts I thought of them as things I got up with friends to do, because going alone seemed lame. But as I stood there, at the end of it all, I was more than thrilled that I had the time of my life, alone.
Most would wonder what gave me the courage or revived the level of "just do it" that I'm accustomed to. While most of it is bought to you by the good graces of the lord, a lot of it has to deal with an Instagram post from one Ms. Sydney.
To find this Instagram post at this time would be a task, so I'm going to paraphrase it a tad bit. Frustrated with the lack of people that were actually about keeping their words and wishes of traveling more and just living life, Sydney took it upon herself to just go out and do it, regardless if she had someone to go with her or not. In the mentioned post she talked about how people were always saying what they were going to do, but ultimately didn't because they were too focused on living the life that was presented to them. This problem is pretty rampant throughout the U.S. where people want to experience the same old thing and go to the same old places.
Not Sydney though, she wanted more, and she was determined to get it.
While most would have dismissed her statements and said that she was going to fall in line just like everyone else does, I was a bit intrigued by it. See I have this particular gift where I can read people perfectly, what I do with that information is the hazy part lol. But with Sydney, (through the limited conversations that we had before then), I just knew that she was about what she said she was about in that moment. I don't know if it was the way that she used her words or the raw energy that I felt coming from her status, all I know is that I believed her in that moment. The one thing that I was waiting on from there on out was the actual action to follow the words.
And what she did was nothing short of remarkable.
The couple of shots that you see here on this post does her no justice at all. She's been to some beautiful places, and not only that, she actually did things while she was there. You could catch her easily under a waterfall, walking with a tiger, and as you can see from the above picture, playing with elephants as they relaxed from the heat. Sydney not only proved to those naysayers what she said she was going to do, she did it in epic fashion. One of the big reasons that I'm also proud of what she has done outside of her budding career.
While most people would get intimidated by such a woman who actually did what she was going to be about, I look to her as a source of inspiration. Besides the point that she inspires me to just do more by myself, and for myself. She also displayed a rare characteristic that most people don't have within themselves today, individuality. She doesn't fit the mold of the going to Miami every weekend or the watching all of the ratchet television shows and being entertained with just that; she see's the world for more than what it is. She doesn't just stop at what she's given, she goes out and she molds what she wants until she takes it.
It's not uncommon for me to go on Facebook and see her post a socially conscious status about something that has happened in the news, and accompany it with a very thoughtful and well balanced statement on the situation at hand. This just shows you a glimpse into her mindset about how she views the world as a whole.
What does this have to do with traveling? Every single thing ..
While most thing getting up and going is all it takes to travel, a lot more goes into it. While a lot of people do travel to other countries, they usually stick to things within their comfort zone. Which begs the question: why travel if you aren't going to see anything or do anything? Sydney has developed a fearless personality which allows her to see things differently and experience life differently. Hell the very picture in the title picture shows her out at a festival having fun. To be able to just lose yourself in the moment like that takes a combination of things, most importantly it takes the courage to just do it.
When I started this series I wanted to bring to you people doing awesome things that most people don't know about. Well today I bring to you Ms. Sydney, world travel and ass kicker. If you need someone to look up to and gain some courage when it comes to just doing things, even if you have to do it alone, she's the one person you could easily look up to.
Hell, that's exactly what I did.
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