I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to travel and make friends around the world, so today I’ll share the inspiration of Abigail Orosz who our family met on the Paul Gauguin Cruise ship in Tahiti. She was our “Ambassadors of the Environment” Naturalist Guide who we connected with for her magnetic personality, love for nature, and enthusiasm. She shares how her travels and the power to change has made her who she is today. 

As a foreign exchange student at 18 through Rotary international, we were all taught to “adapt, adapt, adapt.” To be cautious of labeling anything different as ‘strange’, but to recognize it for what it was: just different.

The funny thing was, after I spent a year in a foreign culture speaking a language I didn’t know more than 5 words of before I landed on that Swiss soil, coming home felt just as foreign 12 months later.

After college, I moved to New Zealand for a year and a half and felt such freedom to create my reality all by myself.

 

I bought a car, had a job (multiple), went camping on a deserted beach by myself, ate ice cream while walking barefoot on a summer day after finishing my shift at the restaurant, and relished my daily life joys and sorrows in such a tangible way, knowing very well that I had the power to create new joys and overcome any sorrows.

I know that no matter what happens in my life, it’s just a stepping stone on my path, it’s not a place I have to stand forever. I believe in the power of change and of new beginnings.

Whether it’s as simple as taking a different route home to change my perspective, or as big a decision as starting over in an entirely new city with no furniture, no job, and just an imagination full of ideas of what can be. I think that’s one of the most powerful things I’ve learned. If I’m ever feeling stagnant, I have the power to make a change.

Abigail Orosz