This is going to be a post that is (maybe too) personal for me. I wrote this post two weeks ago but never posted it. I thought now that time has past and things are settling a bit, I'd share it with you.
It's something about having faith. Some of you may or may not know that I often go to church. Maybe not every week, but I still consider it often. When I go and pray, I pray for all sorts of things. I pray for my family and friends, for the people in need and so on. I often do a quick prayer as well, I must admit I sometimes do a quick prayer for a good grade because I didn't study enough before a test. When you're alone in a foreign country, living abroad especially in a country where they don't speak English and they don't use roman alphabet, you tend to feel lonely and that's where you turn to praying. In my case, I was in the church. I prayed for courage and strength. Courage not to be afraid to ask and talk to locals despite not knowing the language. Courage to be able to live alone. Especially, courage to believe in myself. Courage. Courage. Courage. I remember saying this word (in Dutch) over and over again in my prayer.
Later that day, I went home. I really didn't feel like doing anything. I just want to stay locked up in my room watch some Youtube and just stay inside till the next day despite the lovely weather outside. I didn't even feel like getting some food. Everything was just a bit overwhelming. I got exhausted of trying to figure things out on my own. I was on my laptop and I can't even remember why but I picked up my LonelyPlanet book of Taiwan. I was just skimming on it and then I stopped and read 'Taiwan Design Museum'. I immediately had this urge to go. I just had to leave my place, even though it was already 3PM and it closes at 6PM. I packed my bag, grab my camera and left. I was there within 45 minutes. The museum was okay. It wasn't so big and half of the exhibition was something I've already seen, so I was done within an hour but at least it gave me a bit of my energy back.
But it was that temporary exhibition of GQ that brought me back again. This exhibition wasn't part of the museum and was a building apart. I didn't know beforehand. As you may have already seen in the
video. It was about dreaming big and who you want to be. It was very inspirational. There was this wall. It had all those weird buttons on it, about 20 or so. This girl explained to me (mind you in Chinese, I just nodded with my head as she showed me) that those are all different stamps. You have to pick one out of the 20 buttons without knowing what it is and stick a piece of paper in it. She gave me one paper. On the strip was written 'What do you need?'. I chose a button, put my paper in it and pressed on it. I didn't really think of much when I was doing this.
I pulled it out of the button and read 'courage'.
It could be just a coincidence or it could be something else, but at that moment nothing felt greater than reading that piece of paper. It could've been everything but it decided to be the one word I needed to hear. It was a reassurance I needed that I'm not alone on this and that it all will be okay. I can say now everything's brighter and a lot more fun! I kept the piece of courage in my daily planner as a reminder for myself that I am capable and everything is possible if you just have the courage.
click read more for the pictures
x J.
