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Published: December 1st 2009
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Turkey
The blue Mosque!
The past ten days have been truly amazing for me. I finally got to see my girl after 3 months of travelling and it was a much needed rejuvenation. I’ve been happy throughout my travels but Maggz is able to take me to the next level of happiness that nobody else is able to do. We met up at the midpoint of the world between Boston and Nepal, which is apparently Turkiye! This is an amazing country where modern meets traditional. It is an accepting culture where Christians, Jews and Muslims can live peacefully, which is really quite rare in this world. Turkiye is the only country that ‘belongs’ to two continents, Asia and Europe. Happy people everywhere that would approach us and even tell Maggz that she is the ‘most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my life’, haha. Swee oh! I felt a culture shock right when I got here because I wasn’t used to the ‘modern’ civilization quite yet. I just spent three months in Sri Lanka, India and Nepal where electricity was available only half of the day and hot water was a rare blessing. So I went all out in Istanbul and ate beef shish
Mix of cultures
Hagia Sophia Mosque used to be a Christian church and then it was converted kebab all day, showered in blazing hot water and used the fast internet for hours. What a lucky life! I am grateful.
Big thanks to little things Of all the holidays, I find Thanksgiving to be the most meaningful. It may seem insignificant when compared to Halloween and Christmas because it isn’t as heavily commercialized, but the meaning of this holiday is far greater than the celebration of ghosts and the birth of a baby. I feel that Thanksgiving is a day where we wake up to realize that we should give thanks to every little thing in our lives that we’ve forgotten to appreciate. Big things like TVs, cars or homes are easy to appreciate because if somebody took it away from me, I would feel the pain of loss immediately. But the little things? Well, I take it for granted because the significance appears to be so small that if it was gone, I wouldn’t notice. But I couldn’t be more wrong. I learned that when all the little things are added up, it’s the big difference in our lives that start to take place which we don’t notice. It’s like what people say, ‘It’s the
little things that counts.” After all, isn’t this enormous world created by matters as tiny as atoms? I understand that the world is beautiful but how can I truly appreciate something as big as life if I can’t even appreciate the small gifts that life has given me? The truth is, I don’t wake up every morning being extremely grateful that I have eyes that allow me to see. Nor do I believe a blind person wakes up every morning being grateful that he can hear. We find things in our lives that we feel the need to complain about and completely forget to be grateful for the things that we already have. But at least on this day, for just one day, we can give ourselves a break and stop complaining about our flaws and start appreciating the simple things that make us who we are today.
I am thankful for…
About 5 years ago, our family went to Africa for a vacation. My dad and I decided to do something really adventurous and go water-rafting in one of the most hardcore rivers. A team of us carried the raft boat all the way down the mountain
Best View of Istanbul
The view is the Asian Side until we reached the river. The very first thing we see is a level 6 rapid… for those who have been water-rafting, you would know that level 6 is insane. It’s the highest level rapid and is rarely ever seen in rivers. The river was roaring and crashing emphatically. I could see the water splashing intensely against the rocks. The river was angry. We saw the first 5 teams enter the river and were immediately swallowed and spat out by the forceful river. They looked like they were going through hell. Usually rapids are fun but this one was just downright terrifying, it seemed like it could murder.
Our team leader yells, “Ok! We’re going in now! Now listen up, no matter what, KEEP paddling! Do not stop paddling and we will be the only team that won’t be swallowed by the rapid! OK! Go, go, go!” We all jumped into the boat with our worn out life jackets, flimsy paddles and trembling hands. I paddled with every iota of strength that I could muster up. Thankfully, the orange raft was going strong and steady.
Yes! Yes! Hell yeah, we’re doing it! We’re going to beat this rapid. I’m so grateful that I’m strong. Woohoo! OH NO. no, no, no we’re losing balancing! Keep paddling! NOOOO! OH SHHIIIIIiiiiiittttttttt….. The rapid viciously smacked me and it felt like somebody swung a bat at the side of my face. The river didn’t just swallow the whole raft, it completely devoured us with its wet jaws. I was tumbling furiously underwater while water was shooting up my nose. Although I knew that I could hold my breath for at least 45 seconds, I was in utter panic so I was using up energy trying to struggle for air. I was so deep in the water that my clothes were weighing me down and I couldn’t feel the upward pull of the life jacket. Worse thing to happen is not to know which way is up. After about a whole 20 seconds of disarray under water, I remember everything was starting to dim. My body was becoming extremely weak. My knuckles were going white. My lungs felt like it was being squeezed tightly by the grip of death.
I’m drowning…I’m dying I did not see my life flash before my eyes, I just saw black abyss. But then I remember exhaling my
last breath and feeling the bubbles go upwards, pointing the way to freedom. With my last inkling of strength, I kicked my legs and followed the bubbles. I was out of air but I had to reach for the sky. And then…
“Ghhuooohoooooo *cough* cough* wuuuohhh”
Air! Holy crap! Air! Sweet, Sweet Air! Air never tasted so good in my life. I was inhaling all of it and choking on it all at the same time. I emerged out of the water with a completely panicked look on my face, not knowing where the hell I was. I greedily swallowed all the air that I could take in and kept gasping it all in, afraid that I would not get another chance. Then I started panting heavily to inflate my lungs back to its normal size. My heart was pumping again and my vision was slowly coming back to me. With every breath I took in, I felt life streaming back into me. I literally felt life. At that moment, every breath was a blessing because it was giving me more and more life. I looked around, searching for my dad. There he was with the same life-threatening
expression on his face, but when he saw me, he weakly smiled. “Heh..hehe..ha..hahaha, HAHAHA, HAHAHAHA!” I couldn’t help it, I was just so happy to be alive that I just laughed ecstatically. “HAHAHHA, I’M ALIVEEE! YES!I LOVE AIR!HAHAHAHA”
That one breath saved my life. In fact, every single breath of air that I have taken in my life has saved my life. Since I was born, I’ve learn to breathe but I never learned how to love breathing air until it was taken away from me. Funny how life works out. I’ve taken more than a million breath of air but that one breath is the one I remember most vividly. Although I’m not enlightened enough to appreciate every single breath of air I take in, at least on this one day of the year, Thanksgiving, I am whole-heartedly appreciating this little invisible thing we call air. I love it, I need it and I can’t live without it, so please never leave me again.
“I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose.” -Woody Allen
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Julie Lin
non-member comment
Thanks for sharing your journey and thoughts
Hi Vic, Thanks so much for sharing your journery and thoughts with us. I enjoyed reading your articles and learned from you. Yes, we should have big thanks for little things. Enjoy your trip with Maggie! Take care, Aunt Julie