DAY 4: IT IS ONLY THE END OF THE WORLD
When you live on a volcano island every day could be the end of the world as you know it. Even though that volcano has not erupted for 30 thousand years, it is still hot, it still smells like rotten eggs, it still gives the energy for one whole island to heat itself in winter, and, in theory, it can still destroy everything around itself if it eventually explodes.
We went for a walk today around a volcano crater. That is not something you do everyday. Maybe you do not live your everyday like it is your last (because, statistically, it probably isn’t), but that doesn’t mean you cannot live it to the fullest. Just like that, you might not think it is important to vote because things seem to be okay, you do not think why you don’t have to take a passport when you go from your country to some other, basically you do not think about the privileges you’ve got – until you lose them.
We spent a lot of time here talking about being aware: being aware of where you live, what you do, but also of what surrounds you and you never even bother to learn more about it, because it does not affect you personally, or maybe it does, but you just don’t see it. Even though our little boat crew is very diverse and each member is unique in their own way, we still share some values and interests – at the end of the day, that’s probably why we are all here, discussing Europe and its issues. Being aware sometimes also means criticizing things you support in order to make them better and to make them grow.
However, sometimes thoughts that you have need to turn to concrete ideas and projects and you need an impulse from the outside. But, if you sit still doing nothing but waiting for that impulse, for that push from the outside, often nothing happens. It looks like you have to convince yourself after all that tomorrow could be the end of the world as you know it, or, on the other hand, that tomorrow could be the change you’ve been waiting for. It is just that you cannot only sit and wait for things to happen to you – you have to do something. Maybe you’ve never done it, maybe it is not something that you usually do, maybe (probably) it is stressful and hard, but at the end of the journey you will, if nothing more, for sure learn something about yourself and about the world.
When was the last time you did something for the first time?
