Giving up

Have you ever consider of giving up something in your life? If not, maybe you should watch a movie called "Into the wild" directed by Sean Penn. It´s based on the life story of Christopher McCandless. It´s a lesson of life, although sad. This boy had recently graduated, however, he didn´t feel ready for a "material" life, despite the fact he had all means for that. What happens, then? He suddenly dissapears from his friends and family´s lives and starts hitch hiking into north! To be more precise, into Alaska, thus he starts his journey by leaving away his car in a flood area and burning his last dollar bills! It´s all about independence and self-discovery. The funny part is that the movie just reminded me about one of my own life experiences. I guess I was about 16 years old and wanted to have my "own" journey... At that time I was living in Brasilia, capital of Brazil, and wanted to go away, however, not too wild as in the movie. One weekend would be enough for me. I grabbed a map, closed my eyes and pointed to the first spot my finger reached. The place was called "Alto Paraíso", which is "Paradise High" literally translating into in English. I thought: "That´s a good start!". So, I packed my bag, sleeping bag, etc, and took a bus to Paradise High. My first challenge already started at the bus station when I arrived at the place. I miscalculated the time, it was then night time, and I had no place to sleep, wow. The safest place to sleep was at the bus station... I just unrolled my sleeping bag, lied next to my bag, and grabbed a long knife I had, and hid it under the bag. We never know... I was scared to death, but too proud to ask someone for a place to sleep or anything else. However, that was part of my "own" journey. On the following day, I was so happy I was alive... But that wasn´t enough for me, I needed more. I was so funny.. It was very early, so I knew I had plenty of time until I start to panic about where to sleep. I just started walking on a raw red sand road into nowhere, or as far as I could get: a village, a town, anything could help. However, after 3 hours walking on a dry, arid climate, no water, and no cars passing by, I had two options: keep walking or get into the jungle and look for some resource of water. I decided to give it a try and kept walking, when 30 more minutes later, I looked right and saw a very humble house, almost a tent, although very decent. That had to be my "Paradise High", I thought! I went straight to the place and begged for water for an Indian woman. She gave me water in a dirty and dusty bowl and I had it as it was my first and last glass of water of my life! Anyway, my journey finished after that weekend, and I had to go back to school on Monday...