All The Small Things

"All the small things
True care, truth brings
I'll take one lift
Your ride best trip

Always I know
You'll be at my show
Watching, waiting, commiserating

Say it ain't so,
I will not go,
Turn the lights off,
Carry me home"

All The Small Things - Blink-182

When you start travelling you meet all sorts of people: the partiers, those interested in the local cultures, even those who are sulking about being overseas (an odd bunch of people these ones). Sometimes when travelling you only get a few days or even a few hours to get to know someone and then one of you moves on. From these limited interactions it becomes quite common to have a generalised opinion of them, even though you hardly know much more about them then where they are from and what they do. I recently had the opportunity to catch up with some people I met while doing my first travels through America and my original impressions of them changed, and there's one in particular which brought me to writing this blog.

It started when I found out they read nearly every post I write, and I had no idea apart from their comments on one travel related blog. It's one of the biggest compliments a person can give me, saying they read and like my blog. There are people I know read this blog every time a post goes up and I value their feedback. But there are others who read this and I have no idea who they might be - but that's the internet for you. 

It shouldn't seem too out of the ordinary that he reads this given how many random blogs and articles we click on every day, right? Well, this person also happens to be the loosest person I have ever met. I have never seen anyone party as much or drink as much as they do, to the point where I was nearly fearful of them. I honestly have no idea how they made their way on their travels given the nights we had out. It was all in good fun and towards the end of the trip I wished I had gotten to know them a bit better. When I reunited with the group recently the guy was, without a doubt, still one of the loosest people I had ever met. It's like that's their thing, their one big impression they want everyone to remember them by. 

But as this reunion went on I began to see the smaller things. The compliments about my writing came out again and the support offered about a few of my sadder posts. We talked more and actually listened to one another (a topic which I intend to cover more in my next blog). We laughed and danced to terribly awesome 1990s music with the rest of our group. And when some idiot made me drunk cry at about 1am we drunk sung Shake It Off together. I always knew they weren't a bad person but I never knew they were such a good person.  

There were other revelations about my travel mates on this reunion - like the girls who turned out to be lovely and fun and not at all stuck up like I first thought. And then, unfortunately, the people who turn out to not be as good as you once thought. I guess it works both ways. 

I love all the people I meet while I travel, as they are part of a huge adventure. I enjoy their stories and goals and visions for where they are going next. I wish I could keep in touch with everyone I meet and get to know them a lot better, but realistically that's not possible. I take what I can get from people as I go, and sometimes I'm lucky enough to meet them again, and maybe some of them will really turn into my life long friends.