The Year of my Dreams

If you had a whole year that you would dedicate to one sole purpose, and this purpose could be what ever you wanted it to be? You know all those things you always wanted to do? What if you suddenly got the chance, the tools and the neccesary kick in the ass to actually go do them? AidCom and the Dream Year actually gave me this; the chance to live my dream. To do something meaningful, to work and get relevant work experience while traveling the world and challenging my comfort zone. For it is easy to dream, but hard to find the courage to live the dream. The courage I believe I had in me all along, AidCom just brought it out.

When I get old, I don´t want to look in the mirror and see the dreams I never made come true, I want to see a happy and wrinkly lady branded by all the things I’ve experienced in my life. Now, I know I will.

I will be wrinkely from the numeros days of sunbathing and swimming by the pool in the 38 floor skyscraper i lived in downtown Kuala Lumpur.

My hair will look tired and wavy from the bad haircut and highlights I got from a ladyboy hairdresser who never had seed blonde hair before in a remote island on the west side of the Philippines.

I want my tastebuds to be sharpened after eating truffles, oysters and champagne at fancy members-only clubs in Shangai.

My feet will be unsteady from a trip to many in the damp jungles of Malaysia, looking for the world biggest flower and a refreshing bath under a breathtaking waterfall.

My leg will have a huge scar after a bumpy gallop along the crater edge of a sleeping vulcano, situated over 2500 meter over water level on Africas Horn.

My hearing will be sharpened after sitting around a camp fire anjoying a glass of wine while holding my breath just listening to a lion roaring while hunting on the hills around me.

My liver might be wakened after a coctail too many on top of Marina Bay sands overlooking the skyline of Singapore, a Singapore Sling at The Raffles Hotel or a beer while jumping up and down to David Guetta at the Formula 1 Circut in Kuala Lumpur.

I want my eyes to be dry and sore, because I forgot to blink while sleeping outdoors under the clearest and most star-filled sky I´ve ever seen, by the shores of Lake Langano in the highlands of Ethiopia.

I will be broke because I went bananas, totally unexpected, at 273804 square meters of shopping heaven in the Philippines.

My fingers could be crooked because I helped sort tea leaves with tired workers under big straw hats in damp evergreen hills up in the moist highlands of Malaysia.

My voice will be hoarse after I screamed all my throuth could handle racing the tallest, longest and fastest zipline over a verdant rainforest in the Philippines, 115 meters up in the air.

My cheeks will be red because they endured hundreds of new tastes with hot, exotic spices, and my stomach will be full because I found a favourite dish i every corner of the world I’ve visited and enjoyed every bite of it.

My head, and my hard drive, will be overflowing of pictures of moments in time, of valuable and wonderful memories I will carry with me untill I die. My heart will be havy because I have seen how devastating disease and poverty is for Ethiopia´s kind and giving people.

- Even though my back will be crocked after carrying my backpack in numerous airports across the globe, I will stand tall knowing that I accompished my goals. I traveled, I saw, I experineced. My dreams are reality because I made them, and most of all – my smile will be genuine and big because I know I’ve lived my life just the way I was dreaming.