Never Say Never

When is the last time you said, “Oh, I would never…”?

One day this past week I scrolled through my Facebook feed while walking into work and saw that T’s sister had shared a video that was posted one year ago to the day. It was the video of the wedding party dancing down the street in my sister-in-law’s village in the southern part of Thailand, and I distinctly remember how I felt in that moment. Happy, blessed that I was able to partake in such an important cultural celebration, flustered at trying to follow the movements that I would get the hang of and then would change quickly (while simultaneously Skyping in my brother-in-law who hadn’t made the trip), hot as hell in my traditional bridal party outfit dancing in the sweltering Thai sun at 8am when it had already reached about 100 degrees, and bewildered that I was there. I kept repeating to myself, “This is so cool.”

Years ago my older sister decided to quit her job and head to Southeast Asia to teach English in a Thai orphanage. Her now-husband was doing a study abroad semester in India, and they planned to travel for a couple of months once school was done for him. Because FaceTime wasn’t a thing then, and free wifi everywhere hadn’t caught on yet, I’d get emails from her whenever they made it to an internet cafe. I remember a line in one of her emails that read something along the lines of, “…and it’s at least 100 degrees everyday, but it’s not that bad because I have my own fan!” …what. I completely did not understand what made her pick up and head a full day’s flight away from home, never mind how she was surviving in a foreign land that was so hot, with food that was so different.

I thought that I would never desire to travel to that part of the world because a) I hate to fly and b) I’m a picky eater. Well, friends, the same morning I saw this video again, I actually bookmarked a website for an elephant sanctuary, thinking that sometime I’ll head back to Thailand and make sure I spend time (as in days) at one of the sanctuaries.

So what changed!?

Reflecting back on the many times I’ve said I would “never” do something: I was so, so wrong. So I guess the life lesson here is to never say never, because you just don’t know where life will take you!