When crossing rivers, the first thought should always be, “Do I need to get my boots wet? Can I see a safer and easier way to cross?” I feel like the last two years have been one bloody long river crossing. As each of us do our best to navigate through these weird times, one thing’s for sure, we’re so far down the river that whatever awaits us on the other side, there’s no going back. The ‘new normal’ just becomes, well, normal.

There were plenty of times that the river looked calm and getting my boots wet didn’t seem so bad. I remember the days when wearing masks was a fashion accessory more than a necessity. Videos of Six60’s massive summer concerts in New Zealand beamed across the world and jaws dropped. Apart from a couple of lockdowns, my life pretty much went on as usual until the last six months.

As the Omicron community cases kept climbing at the start of the year, we could see the waters start to get murkier by the day. Even though we had watched the rest of the world experience our current reality, there was so much we as a country had to figure out on our own too. The river wasn’t only just rising, it was in flood.

The wound is the place where the light enters you

Do you remember the scene in Forrest Gump where he had been running for over three years, hair and beard had grown long and wild, and all of sudden he just stopped in the middle of the road. “I’m pretty tired. I think I’ll go home now.” Priceless.

And that was it, he turns around and starts running back home.

He reflects, then utters the words that summed up why tramping has become such a big part of my life. “You’ve got to put the past behind you before you can move on, and I think that’s what my running was all about.” I stumbled into tramping much like I stumbled into graphic design - I didn’t know exactly what I wanted, but my gut was telling me to look for something better than what my logical mind was showing me at the time.

How do you eat an elephant?

It’s a funny saying, isn’t it? I don’t remember ever being asked that question growing up, yet recently I just can’t seem to get away from it. What’s that about? I know that I’ve been a bit restless lately, and being an Aries, I don’t like to sit still very long. I’ve been craving a passion project to really sink my teeth into, but I haven’t quite found it yet.

Then, something clicked around 3am this morning. I was wide awake and just couldn’t go back to sleep. Not even those soothing rain music videos on YouTube could quieten my brain, who had clearly latched onto a time zone where the sun was already up. I gave up fighting it, sat up in the dark and had a conversation with myself.

What’s the elephant in your life, Ronna?

It Is Not The Mountain That We Conquer, But Ourselves

He was exhausted, actually, we all were. It was coming up to sunrise but from memory we still had another hour until we reached the summit. So, he sat down, and then one by one we all did too. Light hadn't even touched the valley yet, but we had already been hiking for about five hours. The world had barely woken up when we reached the summit.

I still remember taking Neel's photo like it was yesterday. He didn't really sit, more like plonked himself down. His face was worn with exhaustion when he faced me and smiled. Then he turned his head towards the sunrise. He didn't really want to give up, he just wanted to watch the sunrise.

Happiness Is A Place Between Too Much And Too Little

I watched the fingers uncurl on my left hand as I counted how many months I’ve been back in New Zealand. Five, I’ve been back five months. Each time I click on my Facebook memories, there’s a photo or a post that reminds me of a year of travel, adventures, friendships...and of course, life. A year of embracing adventure that not only filled my hard drive with gigabytes worth of memories, but also taught me that seeking adventure is as much about our relationship with ourselves as it is to embrace what happens to us externally.

Be Brave Enough To Suck At Something New

As we get older, trying new things or being adventurous doesn’t come as naturally as when you were a kid. We reach a stage in our lives where we like to think we somewhat have it together, and that could be why we’re more likely to shy away at doing things we haven’t tried before. There’s a higher chance we’d suck at it, which means you have to check your ego at the door and that isn’t always easy.

I’m what you call a generalist - I have a lot of accumulated skills, though not really an expert at anything. I’m that friend who likes to give things a go and have a long list of eclectic hobbies and curiosities. Sometimes I envy people who pursue one or two things and know everything about them inside out. That’s never been me.