a bit of reality set in...

The reality of being so far away from home is starting to set in. Before I left home, I thought that this would be rampant with negative emotions, but so far it’s still full of wonder and discovery. Tears came to my eyes the other day, but not in a way that I expected.

Thank -you to those who have viewed the pictures and videos, and possibly made comments about the desert safari we took. It really was an eye-opening experience. Even my friend who got motion sickness while bashing the dunes regrets nothing! I think many back home have gone from “Why would Cara want to go all the way to the Middle East?” to “Ok, I get it…when can I go?” It was actually during this great experience that tears came.

During my teenage years, I grew up in Dundas with my mom, brother, and stepfather, Keith. It was a typical set up of suburbia. I wasn’t too thrilled to leave my friends from the east end of Hamilton during the end of my grade 7 year, to a town that seemed out of the way and had access to little. I wouldn’t say that I was a rebellious teen by any means, but I did have my moments when my parents (particularly Keith in this case) would drive me mad in trying to put new experiences in front of me “for my own good” he would say, “you never know when you’ll travel to Morocco one day, so eat the Moroccan soup I made.” At the time I would roll my eyes and nitpick at my meals, wondering why we couldn’t just order pizza or go out to the Collins or something.

Nearing the end of high school, I was able to travel to the Dominican Republic with my peers to help build a teacher’s home and classroom in a small village just outside of Ocoa on the Southern side of the interior mountains. The experience undoubtedly opened my eyes to a new culture and I started to think that Keith may have been onto something after all. At this point, the experience was great, but leaving home for an extended period of time (ie more than a week) was just not an option…I was a Hamilton girl at heart and never wanted to be too far away. Well, you know how that has turned out so far!

The desert safari the other day ended with the belly dancing. We really didn’t know what to expect. Were we going to be belly dancing? Were we going to be entertained? What was going to happen? When the music started to blare out of the speakers, and a beautiful woman appeared, it dawned on me more than ever just how far away from home I was. This was not something I would see at home and had only seen in the movies. This to me was part of what Keith meant by the new experiences we should always have, travel the world, be your own boss… Although it has been almost 10 years since his passing, I felt closer to him that night than ever. The music ended, bellies were full, the lights were darkened, and we laid there looking at the stars. The stars appeared brighter than ever. I didn't mean to well up, but while feeling so small while looking out at the universe, I felt that I have come such a long way and have to keep going, keep striving for more. Does this make sense? It was as if I was looking at the stars as goals to shoot for. I like bright and pretty things, I want to be up there with them! One by one the lights came on, we sat up and started to collect ourselves. I found myself asking a question I often do, “what would Keith say in all of this?”