Comfortably Challenged

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“A good story begins at the moment when our comfortable reality is challenged. We often find ourselves in new realities- a new school, job, relationship or country, any of which demand some reinvention of ‘belonging’.” Shaun Tan


This resonated with me the moment I read it. I did definitely reinvent myself and my sense of belonging countless times, even though at points I could not even process it in a ‘deep’ way, I just lived my life –and the new shades of it- however I knew how. For sure though, my reality, my comfortable reality, has been challenged many times and I have had to pause, to stop and think about how to move forward, even when I didn’t recognise the surroundings, and life as I knew it was no longer. It has happened many times and will continue to happen because that is life and that is how you grow: you step into the unknown, you venture into the wild and hope that things will work and you will learn, survive, thrive…You swim into that deep ocean even when the scary blackness that is below you threatens to engulf you; you swim because you know that, most likely than not, you’ll somehow get to the other side, triumphantly smiling a wide and wiser smile. If you somehow don’t, you won’t sink, trust me; you’ll redirect yourself and the water and winds will carry you afar. You’ll trust the elements because they’ve always been there, ubiquitous as they are and trustworthy as they are…You will not sink, you will not die, you’ll live the life, you’ll thrive in your path; you’ll learn from everything, you’ll see the signs, you’ll trust the universe while looking at the sky.
So, let your comfortable reality be challenged! Don’t be afraid to try! Live, don’t just survive; life’s too beautiful to just let it pass by before your eyes and not dance around. Learn, help, be kind, grow, fall in love; please, please, please, be curiously in love with life.

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