deartraveller

Dear Sara,

As I’m sitting here on this bench waiting for the train I’m suppose to catch, I decided to write you about this book I’m reading to speed up time: “As you like it”, from the one and only William Shakespeare.

There was a particular passage that got my attention, the one that starts with that famous sentence “All the world's a stage”, you know it right? Well, as I read it I couldn’t help to compare what he wrote to what I’m experiencing right now.

All the world’s a train station, and man and women are merely travelers. Just like a moving train, they have their stays and their stops throughout their lives, and one man in his time travels all around.

We can describe our life journey in seven stops: at first the eager child, eager to leave his mom’s nap and discover the world for the first time. Then, the trapped teenager, with his loud music and alternative looks, who believes to be hold back by his over protective family and doesn’t have enough freedom. And then the early 20’s, the age to look incredibly stunning, go out, laugh out loud, love for the first time, commit every mistake and start discovering all the world’s incredible things. The late 20’s bring us the fresh worker, excited at first with the new office and tasks but without time to fit trips in his new schedule. With the 30’s comes the mature worker, seeking for recognition, with his everyday routine and who takes about two/three weeks a year to see a different country. It is the age of learning the lessons from the mistakes of the 20’s. And then the 40’s and followers, the age to pay for the drinks! It’s when you realize you’re not getting any younger and think: “I still have so much to see!” and go on a spree trying to make up for the working years and start paying attention to every little thing in life. Later on, the elderly traveler, tired and (I hope) full of life experiences to remember. It’s when the back ache kicks in, so the proper age to take a break from travelling, sit back and tell our story to our grandchildren: tell them about what we saw, how happy it made us. Hopefully it will inspire them to follow our footsteps and go discover the world for themselves someday too.

Actually, I never want to stop travelling the world, but I know it will come the day when I will be in an office surrounded by paperwork instead of road maps, but I‘m telling you, when that day comes, I will turn my back on it, go to the nearest train station and catch the first train. Then I will travel until my feet can no longer bear it. And I truly hope to have you always by my side in this, the most important journey of all: our own lives.

My train just got here. I’ll write you later telling you everything about the place I’m headed. I’m missing you a lot.

Love,

Érica.