Life Sans Wifi (Pronounced Weefee)

July has arrived.

I just can't believe how much June taught me. I'm traveling again, I'm abroad again, it's terrifying again, I'm hungry again, I crave food again, I miss my family and friends again, but I'm living my life as it was meant to be lived: traveling, seeing the world, meeting people, trying new things, food, and activities, and learning, learning languages, and music and dances and cultures, and challenging my physical body, challenging my mental strength, challenging myself to be social, challenging myself to be happy everyday despite all of the obstacles.

The world is so beautiful if we just have the bravery to go out and see it. Five continents in out of seven and I'm starting to feel like I've gotten just a small taste of what this world is like. Twenty two countries doesn't even scrape the surface of the globe, but it's a start, and if nothing more it's been an inspiration to keep going, keep traveling, keep exploring, keep experiencing, keep living each day like it's the next big adventure of my life. 

I recognize that if traveling and putting yourself in wildly uncomfortable places isn't really your thing, then my lifestyle may be a challenge to understand. Whatever it is you do on a daily basis to make yourself feel that you're living your life to your ultimate capacity of happiness then do that. But don't forget to challenge yourself with the uncomfortable in order to grow. Overcoming life's challenges anywhere, at home or abroad is what makes me feel alive. Seeing how life can be lived anywhere and how it changes our expression of human is for me the most worthy use of my time and energy.

...

Today is my eleventh day straight without any internet connection or ability to text or call or really communicate with anyone outside of the group I'm traveling with and the local community members. 

It started as sort of scary. And then awkward. You realize how much you rely on sitting down at break time or the end of a day out and about to connect with friends and family back home. You feel disconnected from all you've ever known and at the same time thrown in head first to a deep end of foreign culture. Life moves slower. You get a little anxious, like you're not accomplishing enough, until you realize there's nothing really to accomplish. Slowly, you melt. You sink into the slow pace, the casual expectations of nothingness but calm and simple interactions. You are so humbled by your knowledge and lack there of. Conversations bring about questions without immediate answers turned into pondering and curiosity. Lack of immediate internet gratification and therefore knowledge leaves you with a childlike acceptance of not being the smartest in the room. You value others and their knowledge and their experiences so much more. You remove the machine and come back to a since of humanistic respect and responsibility. People and their experiences matter. They contribute. 

Missing people means something entirely different. You don't miss them because all you can do is text, and the conversation you're having reminds you of good times. No. You miss people because you aren't having conversations at all. You try to imagine what they are doing while they are missing you but you get angry that they have each other. And when you are surrounded with no one who knows who you are missing it's a loneliness that challenges you and quite honestly just makes you happy. Because I have so many people to miss. I have so many special people I love so much that just I got to cherish the memories and thoughts of all of these past eleven days. Moments of laughter or beautiful cotton candy skies made me think of special people, foods and tastes and smells brought me back to the most peculiar memories that I share with some of my favorite people, languages and views brought me back to the people I love most. 

Somehow being disconnected made me think about them all more. Being separate from life in real time gave me time to reflect and think about why I love and miss people, rather than just the mere fact that I do. When I didn't get to say "I love you" I thought of reasons why I do. I thought of memories and reveled in them as a form of entertainment. And I have so many memories to revel in. 

So while at first I would accidentally open Instagram or Facebook like an old habit, my mind and body slowed and calmed and gave me the time and space to really live my life. There were days I didn't think about my phone at all, I thought about my field school, and the people and places I was surrounded with. Maybe I didn't document everything that happened in detail, but I lived it. I've been so alive these past eleven days. So aware of every emotion and feeling. And stronger for having to face everything head first.

I'd recommend it to be honest. It was liberating. 

That being said I can't wait for Internet and to talk to everyone again!!! About 30 minutes away from Huamanga, and I cannot wait!

...

Wifi has fallen upon us all and we've quickly become silenced by the rapid typing and scrolling on our devices. We've already been eating better and have big plans for dinner here shortly. I have loved being surrounded by topics of transitional justice and I can only hope that my life continues down the path of social justice and anthropology, with a camera at my near side. I'm happy with where I'm at in life, I really really am. Thanks for sticking with me through my sappy and life reflecting posts during my sans internet phase, may my sense of humor return with the trusty aid of friends and family and social media.

Hasta pronto!

01/06/17