Recently I was sent this link called The 3 A's of Awesome, if you haven't seen it, I HIGHLY recommend it. In this inspirational talk, one thing Neil Pasricha touches upon is life as having lumps and bumps along the way. Since watching it, I have used the phrase quite regularly. Especially so on this last adventure to Vietnam and Cambodia. Let's see... here are just a few of the "lumps and bumps" I experienced along the way...
-getting hit by a motor-bike driven by a Russian tourist when his brakes failed (or so his story goes)
-having a full body heat rash for the first week (at least it wasn't fungus, which was my first fear)
-losing my favorite anklet I got on a trip to Indonesia with my brother
-getting food poisoning (imagine sleeping on the floor of a moldy bathroom getting sick for 2 days- not cool)
-having my battery charger blow up in the electrical socket and couldn't charge my camera batteries for the rest of the trip
-falling on some rocks by the ocean, hurting my knee and wrist and bouncing my head off the rocks
-ruining 2 favorite pairs of sunglasses
And finally... having my laptop stolen with 2 days left on the trip.
Most of them are little things that happen in life (well, sometimes my life feels a bit more troublesome than most, especially when I travel!). Anklets, sunglasses and battery chargers can be replaced, my body will always heal itself (and luckily there were no broken bones), but it's the stolen laptop that's really hard to swallow.
I didn't back up my laptop. There, I said it.
I lost all my travel photos from the trip, but more importantly were the photos taken by the children in the orphanages we visited. I am so angry with myself for not being more responsible... I had every intention of backing up... I even had a portable hard drive with me! The photos were for a project... a foundation I am starting that is centered around supplying cameras to orphanages around the world, giving these children a voice to share their vision, to learn, to be empowered... to have fun! Luckily, the video footage is still intact, and I will share that as soon as I have something put together.
So the point of all of this... there will always be lumps and bumps along the way, but if there are things you have been putting off (like updating your software so you can use icloud) or other precautions you could take so the big lessons will instead just be little bumps... then do it!
The few photos I didn't lose were from my iphone... here are some of the incredible children we had the pleasure of meeting.
