FOREWORD
FOREWORD
Welcome to my travel journal you crazy, beautiful people. This is Marius Brown, your average run-of-the-mill idiot who’s writing about his adventures all over the world during a gap year taken during his medical residency over 2022 and 2023. Okay, here it goes…
I am entirely conscious of the fact that in all likelihood, no one but me will ever read this. Mostly cause by the end of this one year, I managed to write an entire tome. Also cause I’m no J.R.R. Tolkien.
But that’s fine. The point of me writing this was to immortalise every single detail, every single thought that ran through my head, every single emotion I’ve experienced. Which, I guess, makes for an impossibly long, impossibly boring read to anyone who’s not me. But to me? Oh boy… To me, writing this tome was one of the greatest achievements of my life. What started out as some random scribbles in an effort to make a travel journal has turned into a sort of compendium about all sorts of things – from philosophy and science to art and politics. As I sat down writing, using my experience supplemented by that of qualified experts, local guides, information boards and even books and websites, I started to realise the extent of all that I had learnt.
And, more importantly, it recounts the absurd tales of everything I’ve seen and done. Over the year I spent travelling, it feels as if I had seen, done and learnt more stuff than I have over my entire lifespan. One year, distilled into this one journal. Despite having written so much and despite the fact that I wanted to write about every single detail, I can guarantee that it this is just the tip of the iceberg and that for every detail I included, there’s about a million others that have gone unwritten and are now gone with the wind. But I did the best I could to burn these memories in my head and onto these pages. The lessons I’ve learned. The things I’ve seen. The things I’ve done…
My writing was driven by many factors. Like wanting to vent and release my pent-up emotions like I always have. To improve my technique and develop better skills. To share some of what I’ve experienced with certain people. And maybe even publish some of it and make some money out of it. I had many a reason to do this. But the main driver was one – the fallibility of memory. The point of me writing this was so I could remember as much as I possibly could. Every single detail that is worth remembering.
As I sit here writing this, I am very aware of how many details have already been erased from my mind. I am very deeply, very painfully aware of that. And that’s just after a few days. Imagine in a couple of years or decades! Be that as it may, having this journal here means I can relive as many of these memories whenever I want. I usually go around buying all sorts of souvenirs when I’m travelling. This time round, I didn’t have enough money or space to do that. Instead, this would be my one and only souvenir. A memoir recounting all the crazy, incredible, fantastic, unbelievable, wild tales that I have lived through over this year.
So that one day, if I find myself alienated by everyday life, I can look back onto this and realise once again that there is more to life than work and social commitments. That this used to be my life and that it can be my life once again. So that one day, if my memory starts to fail me, I can look back onto this and realise how much I’ve lived.
Stay wild,
Marius
Post-Scriptum
After my trip, I thought I’d stray away from a hipster-sounding title for my journal that always, inevitably ends up sounding so generic. Mostly cause I’ve met many of such travellers who think they’re doing something out of this world. Most cause I thought I’d be doing something out of this world. But, as I’ve come to learn, that can’t be farther away from the truth. I am just one of the many. Millions before me and thousands with me have done the exact same thing I did, but, that doesn’t take away any of it. Because I am the one who’s experiencing it now. And I have a unique perspective that can’t be recounted by anyone else – no matter how generic or boring it might be.
I am really inspired together with your writing abilities as smartly as with
the layout in your weblog. Is that this a paid theme or did you modify it your self?
Anyway keep up the nice high quality writing, it’s rare to look a nice blog like this one today..
It’s a free theme which I modified myself. I try to be self-reliant since this is pretty much a hobby!