A Beholden Wanderer

Not all wanderers are lost. As such, joy is explicit in a nomad who finds meaning in a drifting passage. A realization, which hit me as I turned my gaze back to the time when I first set foot here in Jakarta.

A year ago, I would have thought it improbable to dream that such a journey is possible. I only knew that for the first time in years, I wanted to throw caution to the air and simply follow what my heart was telling me. I was a traveler with no certain plans. I just wanted to try and of course, fly. I was a wanderer who was lost with the realm of my dreams. No blueprint. Nothing. Just FAITH.

Now, as time proves its fleetingness again, I was brought back to the instance when uncertainties were all that I had. One year passed by so swiftly and 23rd of April marks my first year here in Indonesia. I have nothing in my heart but gratitude.

This country has been so generous to me in so many aspects. I’ve been showered lavish opportunities that I lost count of them. I’ve been given with so many friends that it feels like I am just home in the Philippines. I’ve been blessed specifically, spiritually.

Though there are personal sacrifices, they are nothing compared with the self- fulfillment that I have found in this foreign country. Indeed, God has been so generous with me.

One year in this land made me experience to travel for two times in Singapore and of course visit home in the Philippines twice also. I’ve been to different areas of Jakarta and nearby places as well. Yes, each travel is different. Each travel is meaningful. I’ve found them all when I bravely took that journey on the night of April 22.

What struck me the most since coming here was how people can be so generous with their words of appreciation. There is no inhibition of how they say their praises or appreciation. I am humbled beyond utterance of the people who love me here in spite of the short time that I have known them. Again, undoubtedly God has been so generous to me.

Conceivably, this journey has also catapulted me into the quest for meaning of life. Something has changed inside me. That change pierced the core of my life beyond elucidation by words alone. Again, I’ve found them here.

As future is ambiguous at this phase of my life, I don’t really know where this journey will bring me or how long will I stay here. But, as time marks my first year in this foreign land, allow me to say this to the country which has been so generous to me with blessings, to the people who have embraced me as one of them, to the school (and the school owner) which helped me with my spiritual journey, above all, to our generous Creator, who patiently led me in this path, Terima kasih banyak. I am nothing, yet, I was given everything. Yes, I am a beholden wanderer.

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